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Canberra Today 12°/15° | Saturday, March 30, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Whodunnit? The Mousetrap plays at The Q

AGATHA Christie’s “The Mousetrap” opened in the West End of London in 1952 and is the longest-running theatre production of our time, with nearly 25,000 performances to date.

Originally written by Christie as a radio play titled “Three Blind Mice” and broadcast in 1947, the famous crime writer Christie never expected the stage-show to run longer than eight months. How wrong she was.

In the past year, people living in the Canberra region have been able to save themselves a trip to London to see the play as the tightly-guarded performance rights have been released, though only momentarily, as a major touring production will soon be scheduled for the capital cities.

Staged last year at Belconnen, by Tempo Theatre, this famous play will be the first of two Queanbeyan City Council sponsored productions for 2012.

Directed by Jordan Best who has gathered around her own all-star cast of  Oliver Baudert, Liz Bradley, Jim Adamik, Riley Bell, Timothy Sekuless, Kiki Skountzos, Michelle Cooper and Brendan Kelly, the play kicks off at The Q next week for a three-week season. With costumes by Emma Sekuless and a set by Brian Sudding, it looks set to be a hit.

So what’s it all about? Needless to say, “CityNews” is not about to reveal the ending—that would be death—but we can say that it’s up to the typical Christie cliff-hanger set in a snowbound chalet, where the  proprietors, a young couple, are anxiously awaiting their first guests.

No prizes for guessing that those guests are a weird mob and that everyone is a suspect. The play’s appeal, The Q is saying, is “the way its author gives the audience reasons to suspect each guest”. I don’t know about you, but I always conveniently forget whodunnit in an Agatha Christie.

That way I enjoy the next production as much as the last one. And that’s what makes it, the theatre is saying, “as satisfying as a nice, roast dinner”.

“The Mousetrap,” at The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, March 7-24, bookings to 6285 6289 or theq.net.au

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Ian Meikle, editor

Helen Musa

Helen Musa

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