Review: The Mousetrap, a period piece in melting aspic

Keeping audiences guessing for 70 plus years, Agatha Christie’s whodunnit continues to keep its secret.

Edinburgh Playhouse

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Seventy years on and the secret of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap is still being kept by the generations of theatre-goers who have flocked to see what is now the longest running show in the world as well as the archetypal whodunnit.

As it celebrates its latest milestone with a 70th Anniversary Tour, it goes without saying that you won’t discover who committed the murderous deed here. So it’s safe to read on.

Of course, Christie’s crime caper paints a picture of an era long gone; a time when ‘social etiquette’ insisted the lower classes knew their place.

Consequently, in many ways it’s now a period piece, a theatrical snapshot until recently preserved in aspic, ageing aspic that, going by this production, is finally beginning to melt. And not before time.

In Monkston Manor Guest House new owners, husband and wife team Ralph and Mollie Ralston, await their first intake of guests, a collection of idiosyncratic characters thrown together by a snowstorm and with a cold blooded killer in their midst.

But who could it be? The childlike Christopher Wren, played with all the over-active energy of a spoiled child by Elliot Clay, who gives the fey young man a unexpected likability.

Or perhaps it’s the gnarly old Major, brought to life with evident glee and a knowing twinkle in his eye by an scene stealing Todd Carty.

Then again, it could also be the snippy Mrs Boyle, Gwyneth Strong in wonderfully obnoxious form, or maybe even the nomadic Miss Casewell (Jessie Barrow).

Joelle Dyson as Mrs Ralston provides the backbone of the piece while Laurence Pears blusters nicely as her spouse. But are they all they seem.

The arrival of Joseph Reed as Sgt Trotter ensures the pace, which flags from time to time, is never allowed to dally too much.

All in all then, a comfortable if safe evening of theatre, never too demanding and played for more laughs than I recall previously - many in response to Kieran Brown’s practically pantomimic Mr Paravicini, a definite hit with audience.

And let’s not forget that famous moment just before the curtain falls for the last time when another audience is made complicit in keeping the identity of the killer to themselves. It fosters a warm sense of belonging, of being a part of something special, which, let’s be honest, is what all theatre really should be about.

For tickets and full tour dates visit https://www.mousetrapontour.co.uk