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Old timer still catching them
Karl Howman as the rather
affected and vaguely foreign Mr Paravacini, Jemma Walker as Mollie
Ralston and Bruno Langley as Giles Ralston Pictures: Helen Maybanks
The Mousetrap New Alexandra Theatre *** IT IS impossible; it seems, for anyone to
be able to review The Mousetrap without declaring its provenance as the
longest running play ever, with well over 25,000 performances in its 60
years of existence. It's a fact that would surprise even its author
Agatha Christie who famously, in 1952, gave it eight months. What must be remembered is that when the play
opened in the West End of London in the fifties , the format of the
parlour room, country house, murder mystery would have been highly
original and the collection of ` well to do ‘ characters and their
social musings would have been very topical . If you were to take it all seriously then some of the middle class comments about `foreigners ‘having a spare tyre full of Swiss Watches and anyone who breaks the formal protocol of social engagement as being `odd', might now seem awkward. However in truth The Mousetrap is now nothing
more than a gentle timepiece that has become a high entry on the
Bucket list of theatre attendances, so don't be surprised if the
biggest mystery of the evening is how it has lasted so long. For that
reason it's more of ` how did it ‘rather than a ` who dun it ‘? The play is set in a large country house, 30 miles from London and in the depths of a winter blizzard. A young couple, The Ralston's, Mollie (Jemma Walker) and Giles (Bruno Langley) have inherited the property and open its doors for the first time as a guest house to an assortment of strangers. With a murder having happened the day before and the guests now all snowbound, a young policemen arrives in the storm. He brings his suspicions that the house is about to become another murder scene and of course, just as the curtain falls on the first act, he is right.
Although there is a final twist it's pretty easy
to spot and unfortunately the murder itself is about as frightening an
experience as a light bulb going out and in fact that is the way it is
actually staged. When the guests are gathered for the inevitable
police inquest no one seems that bothered that there has been `murder
most foul' , with guests sitting comfortably on the sofa where the
murder actually happened. It's this sort of casual take on the whole murder scene that lets it down and the younger members of this cast don't seem to quite capture or understand the era or connect with their characters. It fell to the older players Graham Seed as Major
Metcalf, Elizabeth Power as Mrs Boyle and Karl Howman as Mr Paravicini
to add some quiet rustic authenticity to the panelled roomed setting. Another issue I had, which is a pet hate of mine,
is the poor use of sound effects. Sitting in the dress circle in a full
theatre, which is some distance from the stage, and with a less than
silent audience around me, trying to hear dialogue whilst it being
buried by the noise of a howling artic wind was a challenge. We can see
the snows falling outside, the guests talk about it, there's snow on the
coats, OK we get it, now turn the gale force effects down or preferably
off. The play traditionally ends with a request to the
audience to not reveal the murderer to anyone which was at Christie's
insistence as reviewers of the time would often publically reveal the
plot facts. That request has perhaps become the singular fact
of how this play has lasted so long. It seems the thousands of theatre
goers over the years have created a greater mystery in the act of going
to see the play than was ever written into the script. One original condition was that no film version
could ever be made until six months after its theatre close. With
the phenomenon of it now being as big of a tourist attraction as
Trafalgar Square it's pretty certain that you won't be seeing it on the
screen in this lifetime, if ever. This is set to be a popular national tour as it
is a rare opportunity to see it without suffering the congestion charge
or a tedious journey to London. For that fact alone it is no mystery
that after all this time, the 60 year old cheese is still catching them.
To 09-02-13 Jeff Grant
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