Iconic Christie mystery 'The Mousetrap' takes Winni Playhouse stage

MEREDITH — To solve the murder mystery that is Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap,” you have to wait until the very end.

This month, the Winnipesaukee Playhouse is putting on “The Mousetrap” to celebrate 70 years of its (almost) continual run in London’s West End. It is the longest running show in the world.

“Everyone always thinks they know who [the murderer] is, but it’s the last person you expect,” said actor Jeffrey Bruce, who plays Mr. Paravicini in the  playhouse’s summer production of the Christie classic.

“If you know, do not spoil it for anyone else, we take that very seriously,” said Director Neil Pankhurst. “And if you’ve never seen it, do not read it ahead of time, and definitely don’t read the Wikipedia page. It’ll completely ruin it for you.” 

Pankhurst believes the reason "The Mousetrap" has had such staying power is that, aside from the fact that it is still a lucrative production, there are still people who have not seen it. There are still people who get to experience the thrill and magic of trying — and almost inevitably failing — to “defeat Agatha Christie” by solving the murder in their brain ahead of the characters. 

“The Mousetrap” is Christie’s stage adaptation of her own short story “Three Blind Mice,” a radio mystery written for the British royal family in 1947. The show debuted in London’s West End in 1952 and established Christie as not just an author but also a playwright in the public eye. 

Until it closed for 15 months due to the pandemic, the West End production never missed a performance, even when changing theaters. This has made the show a pillar of the West End scene and a must-see for enthusiastic tourists. It has now shown nearly 30,000 times. 

The rights to the show, which Christie gifted to her grandson, state that it cannot be performed anywhere in Britain other than the West End and must not be made into a film until the West End production has been closed for six months. 

Audiences, therefore, cannot see this show just anywhere and anytime. 

The Winnipesaukee Playhouse did a production of the show 10 years ago, for its 60 year milestone. Pankhurst’s wife and playhouse co-founder Lesley Pankhurst previously served on the Mousetrap Theatre Project in London, a charity that aims to help connect young people and students with the show. Pankhurst said there is an irony in the fact that, though he lived in London for many years and this is a British show, he could never direct “The Mousetrap” in the UK.

No matter where the production is put on, the appeal to audiences is the same, Pankhurst said: going on a journey of shocking discovery with the characters in pursuit of the killer. 

“The Mousetrap” follows new boarding house owners Mollie and Giles Ralston and their five peculiar guests. A blizzard traps the group in the estate-turned-lodging just as news of a murder in the area is announced on the radio. Believing that someone at Monkswell Manor is associated with the murder, Sergeant Trotter, a detective, arrives to the scene on skis.

The plot follows a typical Christie formula: a cast of unusual and bewildering characters is somehow stuck together in an eerie location. One of them is a murderer but no one, including the audience, knows who. There is no obvious killer or dominant red herring: at any moment one may suspect any character. Every development digs up new suspicions. There is constant danger sprinkled with moments of comedy and peppered with plot twists before a big reveal at the end.

This formula is part of what makes Christie shows so enticing to put on, Pankhurst said. Mystery plays, especially Christie’s, can be quite prescriptive: the author very deliberately laid out the details of the play to leave a delicate trail of clues. Those details must be carried out exactly to not betray the trajectory of the plot. At the same time, the colorful characters give actors room to play in their interpretations.

Bruce plays the mysterious Mr. Paravicini, who arrives at the boarding house without a reservation and, lacking a backstory, is quickly suspected by the others.

Bruce — who, fulfilling a longtime goal of his, will appear as Fagin in the playhouse’s upcoming production of “Oliver!” — once directed a production of “The Mousetrap” in southern Florida where he lives.

Watching his cast become a vessel for the strangeness and mystery of Christie’s storytelling, Bruce was ensnared. “One day,” he said to himself, “I’m going to do that.” Bruce said he loves Paravicini as a character because, like many classic Christie creations, he “is simply too much. He’s a hoot,” he said. 

Bruce said that the playhouse team is “incredibly professional, thoughtful, I’ve never been treated so well.” He also said the cast “has kept me on my absolute A-game.” He also spoke highly of Pankhurst’s keen, but not controlling, direction style.

Pankhurst said he wanted to give the actors the freedom to interpret Christie’s characters differently than his 2012 cast. His goal, this time around, is to highlight the oft-overlooked comedy in Christie’s writing. 

“She really wants you to laugh at and with the characters,” Pankhurst said. 

Neil and Leslie Pankhurst, along with Leslie’s brother Bryan Halperin and his wife Johanna, founded the Winnipesaukee Playhouse in 2004. The Playhouse moved to its current location at the former Annalee campus in Meredith in 2013, making this its first production of “The Mousetrap” since the move. 

“The Mousetrap” will run July 13-30 and details about ticketing can be found at the Playhouse website.