Famed Agatha Christie Whodunnit 'The Mousetrap' Is Returning to the Brisbane Stage This Autumn

Calling all sleuths of Brisbane — again. If you haven't fulfilled your murder-mystery fix on the big and small screens over the past few years, and if you missed a whodunnit play hailing from the one and only Agatha Christie back in 2022, then you'd best make a new date with The Mousetrap.

Here are two questions for you to solve before you get there: why is it a big deal when is it coming your way once more? The answers: as well as being penned by Christie, it's the world's longest-running play; and after last year's season proved such a hit — and a sellout — it's returning to Brisbane from Friday, May 26–Saturday, June 10.

Initially premiering in London's West End in 1952, The Mousetrap has been treading the boards in the UK ever since, only pausing during to pandemic venue closures. When theatres reopened in Britain, so did the show.

Indeed, when it arrived in Australia last year, The Mousetrap did so 70 years to the month that it first debuted. Unsurprisingly, that hefty run means that the show has enjoyed the longest stint for any West End production, and for any play anywhere in the world. So far, there's been more than 28,500 London performances.

To answer the other obvious question, yes, it's all about an unexpected death. The murder-mystery starts with news of a killing in London — and with seven people snowed in at a guest house in the country. They're strangers, which is classic Christie. When a police sergeant arrives on skis, they're told that the murderer is among them (which, again, is vintage Christie). They all have wild pasts, too, and all those details are spilled as they're interrogated, and also try to work out who among them is the killer.

Those guests at Monkswell Manor include a pair of newlyweds who run the house, a spinster, an architect who is handy in the kitchen, a retired Army major, a man who says his car has overturned in a drift, and a jurist. Naturally, there's another death as they're all puzzling it over — and a twist conclusion, which audiences have been requested not to reveal after leaving the theatre for seven decades now.

Again, it's all Christie all over, which'll be evident if you've seen the recent film versions of Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile — or the original cinema adaptations, or read the books, or devoured anything else that Christie ever wrote. And, if you caught 2022's See How They Run, you'll be more than a little familiar with The Mousetrap as well.

This theatre work started as a short radio play, which was written as a birthday present for Queen Mary. It aired in 1947 under the name Three Blind Mice, after which Christie rewrote it as a short story, then adapted it again for the stage as The Mousetrap. And no, there isn't a movie of it — because Christie stipulated that it can't leap to the screen until at least six months after the West End production closes. Clearly, that hasn't happened yet.

In Australia, the play boasts Robyn Nevin directing and John Frost for Crossroads Live Australia producing. Cast-wise, Anna O'Byrne (My Fair Lady, Love Never Dies) is Mollie Ralston, who owns Monkswell Manor, and Alex Rathgeber (Anything Goes, The Phantom of the Opera) is Giles Ralston, Mollie's husband.

Also featuring: Laurence Boxhall (As You Like It, Jumpy) as Christopher Wren, a young guest; Geraldine Turner (Present Laughter, Don's Party) as Mrs Boyle, a former magistrate; Adam Murphy (Shakespeare in Love, Aladdin) as retired British military officer Major Metcalf; and debutant Charlotte Friels as the aloof Miss Casewell. Gerry Connolly (Cyrano de Bergerac, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui) pops up, too, as unexpected guest Mr Paravicini, and Tom Conroy (Jasper Jones, My Brilliant Career) plays Detective Sergeant Trotter.

Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap will hit QPAC's Playhouse in Brisbane from Friday, May 26–Saturday, June 10. For further details, head to the play's website.

Images: Brian Gleach.