Rose Howes steps carefully around The Mousetrap…

A SIMPLE eight-month run was what Agatha Christie was hoping for when The Mousetrap first hit the stage in November 1952.

However, as we all know, those eight months dragged on a tad, and 67 years later it is still running and currently travelling the UK as a touring production.

If you’re not familiar with the plot outline here’s the précis. Expected and unexpected guests are welcomed at a snow-bound and isolated Monkswell Manor. All goes to pot when a phone call interrupts the evening activities and the police arrive with a warning that a killer is on the loose.

Christie is the expert of misdirection and as the plot evolves the murderer could be any one of the characters on the stage. Within the first five minutes you have your first suspect, followed swiftly by another, then another.

By the end of the first act you think you know who the murderer is, only for your theories to be quashed by fellow sleuths, sorry, theatre-goers.

With a cast of eight, the play is fast-paced and does have its moments of comedy.

Nick Wyschna and Harriet Hare play the first-time hotel owners – between them they boast a long list of theatre and voice credits.

Mrs Boyle, the cantankerous older lady, is played by Susan Penhaligan who has had a varied and illustrious career in TV, film and theatre: Upstairs Downstairs, Bergerac, Casualty, and more recently Doctors, to name but a few.

Very much my favourite character was the cheeky Christopher Wren, played by Lewis Chandler. Making his touring debut with this production, he plays a character who is likeable and annoying in equal measures. Although not a complete newcomer to the stage and screen I think he is one to look out for in the future.

Now, the clues to whodunnit are all there. And, if you follow them, you just may work out who the killer is. A word of caution though. When the killer is revealed and as the cast take their bows to rapt applause, you are asked by police Sergeant Trotter to keep the secret of the killer.

And I’m not going to argue with a policeman…

The Mousetrap at Torquay’s Princess Theatre finishes its run tomorrow.