The longest running play of all time

On October 6, 2022, Agatha Christie’s crime thriller, The Mousetrap, will have been running on stage continuously for 70 years (notwithstanding a brief hiatus due to the pandemic). It is a record-making achievement with nothing else even coming close, and the ticker is still counting.

Written originally as a radio play with the title, Three Blind Mice in 1947, it was broadcast as a birthday gift for Queen Mary, consort to King George VI. Christie then rewrote it as a short story and published it in a collection. She later revisited the story and augmented it into a full length play with the new title, The Mousetrap.

When the play debuted in 1952, Christie clearly had modest expectations for it, requesting that the short story not be published, nor any film adaptations be made until the production had completed its run. This was done to help preserve the mystery ending. She could not have expected the play would still be in production seven decades later.

Faithful to her wishes, Christie’s original short story has still not been published in the UK, nor has any film or television adaptation yet been made. Even more extraordinarily, audiences have kept mum about the surprise ending for all these years; that well kept secret may be one of the reasons the play has endured.

The plot of The Mousetrap uses boilerplate Christie elements: an eclectic group of mostly middle class English people confined by circumstances to a fixed location; a murder; a motive and reasons to suspect each of the characters; a tenacious investigator; a twist.

Christie is said to have been inspired to write The Mousetrap by a real life crime that occurred in Shropshire, England in 1945. It involved the death of a young boy in foster care. The trial was a media sensation.

The play is set in Monkswell Manor, a newly converted guest house which is owned by recently wed couple, Mollie and Giles Raslton. They and five guests are trapped by a snow storm one evening, soon after they learn about a local woman being murdered. The guests are: the highly strung Christopher Wren; unlikable retired magistrate Mrs Boyle; retired British military officer Major Metcalf;  the quiet and distant, Miss Casewell;  and surprise guest, Mr Paravicini.  Detective Sergeant Trotter arrives at the guesthouse on skis and the intrigue quickens.

The Mousetrap is about to premiere a new Australian production at the Theatre Royal to celebrate the 70th consecutive year of its run. It will then tour Brisbane and Melbourne.

Produced by John Frost, the show will be directed by legend of Australian theatre , Robyn Nevin, and features a stellar ensemble including: Anna O’Byrne, Alex Rathgeber, Laurence Boxhall, Geraldine Turner, Adam Murphy, Charlotte Friels, Gerry Connolly, and Tom Conroy.

With set and costume design by the award-winning Isabel Hudson, the show promises to be visually sumptuous.

October 8 – 29

Theatre Royal, 108 King St, Sydney

www.theatreroyalsydney.com/events/season-2022/the-mousetrap/