ASF Study Materials for The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie Director James Bowen Study materials written by Set Design Peter Hicks Susan Willis, ASF Dramaturg Costume Design Jeffrey Todhunter [email protected] Lighting Design Travis MaCale Contact ASF at: www.asf.net Sound Design Will Burns 1.800.841-4273 1 The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie Welcome to The Mousetrap—Theatre's Premier Mystery An English country house. Isolated in a snow storm. Roads impassable. Phone wires cut. And a murderer on the premises. The Mousetrap is not just a hit in Characters Mollie Ralston, co-owner of London; it is a tradition. It has been running Monkswell Manor Guest on the West End (London's "Broadway") House, early 20s continuously since its premiere in 1952. Giles Ralston, her husband and When it opened, Agatha Christie co-owner, also in his 20s thought it might run a few months, but Christopher Wren, a guest, since she is world-famous for her murder young and neurotic mysteries, this one has proven compelling to Mrs. Boyle, a guest, middle-aged and imposing generations of theatregoers. So compelling, Major Metcalf, a guest, in fact, that the last word spoken from the middle-aged retired Army stage is a request that the audience not officer reveal "whodunit" so others can enjoy the Miss Casewell, a guest, young thrill of discovery, too. So you are now and forthright enjoined to keep the secret—once you know Mr. Paravicini, an unexpected it. And following that injunction made by arrival, appears foreign and Christie herself, we won't divulge the guilty elderly party in these study materials (in over 60 The Mousetrap — Sergeant Trotter, a young • is the world's longest running initial Berkshire Police detective years only Wikipedia is a snitch)! It was a contemporary mystery when production of a play. By its 60th it opened, set in the early 1950s. Theatres anniversary in 2012 it had passed Place: in Berkshire, England still set it in the early 1950s, though now 25,000 performances. Time: the early 1950s that makes it a period piece, part of the • became the longest running British post-World War II scene of battered but play in 1958, surpassing Noel brave Britain. We should remember these Coward's Blithe Spirit. people have come through the war and are • now hires a new cast every year for now facing a difficult future; we should also a 47-week contract. Over 400 actors recall that war is not the only experience have performed in The Mousetrap that can scar individuals. The past is such since 1952. a rich cave in which to hunt for motives, • still uses the voice of the radio and Christie links the murders at Monkswell announcer from the 1952 production, Manor to an earlier crime during wartime. so one member of the original cast still Scars linger, and now those responsible performs, and one prop, the clock on are being killed. the mantelpiece, was also there on opening night. Who is the murderer? "They're all interesting, because you never really know what anyone is like—or what they are really thinking." "EVERYONE IS UNDER SUSPICION." 2 The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie About the Author: Agatha Christie "The Queen of Crime" Her Work • The Agatha Christie website states • Christie's first fiction attempts featured (or boasts) that only the Bible and her interests in madness and the Shakespeare have out-published paranormal (she and her siblings Christie's works, currently some 2 thought their mother had second billion copies. sight), but none was published. • She is also regarded as the • She also enjoyed detective fiction, most translated author, her especially Wilkie Collins and Sir Arthur work appearing in over 103 Conan Doyle, and her first novel, The languages. Mysterious Affair at Styles, written in • She began writing crime 1916 on a dare from her sister, was novels during World War I published in 1920, the first of her 66 and continued until near her detective novels. death in 1976. • Her most famous works include And • Many masters of the Then There Were None (1939), genre consider Christie The Murder of Roger Ackroyd the originator of many (1926), and Murder on the Orient fundamental motifs of mystery writing. Express (1934). She also wrote 14 Her Life short story collections as well as 6 • Christie was born Agatha Miller in romance novels under a pseudonym 1890 in Torquay, England, the child in addition to 16 plays (among them of an English mother and a wealthy The Mousetrap and Witness for the "Evil is not something American father who had been Prosecution) and poems. superhuman. It is educated in Europe. • Her World War I work as a something less than • Home-schooled at first, she was an avid pharmacological dispenser gave her human." reader of classic English children's a useful knowledge of poisons, and —Agatha Christie books by Mrs. Molesworth and Enid she used her archaeological travels Nesbit and the fantasy of Edward Lear in the Middle East with her second and Lewis Carroll. A skilled pianist, her husband as setting for a number of shyness kept her from pursuing that her mysteries. career. • She is seen as the foremost writer in • Her father died when she was eleven, the Golden Age of Crime Writing, the thus ending what she called her 1920s and '30s. happy childhood. She went to finishing schools in Paris and then with her ailing mother to the warmth of Egypt. "The impossible could not • Married and divorced from her first have happened, therefore husband, Archie Christie, by 1928, in the impossible must be possible 1930 she married archaeologist Max in spite of appearances." Mallowan. They each earned an OBE award for their professional work. —Agatha Christie "Yes—the unexpected guest.… from nowhere—out of the storm.… It sounds quite dramatic. I am the man of mystery." "EVERYONE IS UNDER SUSPICION." 3 The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie Christie's Most Famous Detectives—Poirot and Marple Every great mystery writer creates Miss Marple a great detective. After all, setting up a • Jane Marple is Poirot's inverse, spine-tingling set of crimes does us no instinctual where he is heady. She is good unless someone can solve the case. a white-haired spinster, an amateur Christie created a some great case solvers, sleuth, not a professional, but she both professional and amateur, but two have is uncannily successful amidst her gone down in the annals of crime fiction— knitting and gardening: "she has had Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. every opportunity to observe human Not surprisingly, perhaps, they are nature," and "there is a great deal of opposites—not simply different genders, wickedness in village life." but with different styles of observation, • the character appears in 12 Christie Performing Poirot "sleuthing," and murder solving. The novels and 20 stories, very few prior • the first was Charles contrast was salutary for the author and to the 1940s, whereas Poirot figured Laughton on stage in 1928 stimulating for her readers. in many of Christie's early novels. • then Austin Trevor, followed Hercule Poirot • Marple's character was influenced by Tony Randall, Albert by Christie's experience with her Finney (who got an Oscar • the detective who solves Agatha nomination for his Poirot in Christie's first published mystery, The grandmother and her "cronies." the 1974 film Murder on the Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920), Christie observed that both Jane Orient Express), and Peter known for his waxed moustache, Marple and her Gran "always Ustimov perfectionism, egotism, and fine mind. expected the worst of everyone and • for 25 years, English actor • In her Autobiography, Christie said, everything, and were, with almost David Suchet (above) "Why not make my detective a frightening accuracy, usually proved played the Belgian, taping right." every Poirot story for tv Belgian?… I could see him as a tidy little man, always arranging things, • Her grandson says Christie as an liking things in pairs, liking things author used many of Marple's Performing square instead of round. And he techniques; she "listened more than Miss Marple should be brainy—he should have she talked, … saw more than she • Gracie Fields was seen." Story ideas, like clues, are was followed little grey cells of the mind." everywhere, even sitting at the next by Margaret • during her career he appeared in Rutherford, 33 novels and 54 short stories—and table in the cafe. a comic considering that he was already a Marple; "former shining light of the Belgian Analyzing Investigation in The Mousetrap Angela police force" before the war (World • Consider the presence of the Lansbury War I, in his case) forced him to professional view vs. the amateur was more England, he had a long run. As view in the play. Sgt. Trotter, as the "austere," and Helen Hayes, policeman, the professional, organizes then Joan Hickson for the Christie observed late in her life, she started him off too old, for he must be the inquiry and seeks information BBC (above, Christie's and clues. Mollie, like Miss Marple, favorite), and Geraldine well over 100 by the later novels—but begins to ask questions, to widen the McEwan and Julia in fiction he seemed ageless. McKenzie, also in television • Poirot's character was inspired by consideration of suspects, to see the series the Belgian refugees Christie saw in situation from different angles. How do Torquay while she worked in a hospital these two methods work in the play? during World War I. "One of you is in danger, deadly danger." "EVERYONE IS UNDER SUSPICION." 4 The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie Mousetrap Lore The Story • Christie then revised the story when • The play originated as a BBC radio adapting it for the stage, adding a play commissioned in 1946 in honor character, changing a name, and of Queen Mary's 80th birthday.