[theatre review] The Mousetrap

[sophia_sol]

Some time ago I saw a production of Agatha Christie's play The Mousetrap with a friend. I'm generally the sort of person to look up spoilers beforehand so I know what to expect going in, but The Mousetrap has a long history of specifically asking the audience to come in unspoiled, even though it's from long before the current anti-spoiler culture, so I thought it might be fun to play along and go in with my expectations untainted.

And to continue that tradition I'll put the rest of my thought behind a cut!

spoilers

It was an enjoyable and well done play, overall. Good set design and staging, well acted, and a fun mystery with a collection of intriguing characters all stuck together in one place.

At the intermission my friend and I had a good time talking through our thoughts on who the most likely suspect was, and there were a number of options. We agreed that Trotter couldn't be the guilty party, though, because that would not be narratively satisfying.

So I was very disappointed to discover in the end that it was in fact Trotter.

Some other aspects of the plot kind of niggled at me too. Like, why didn't the police pretending to be Metcalf do anything to stop Trotter??

Trotter suddenly being super crazy at the end, despite no previous signs, was also unsatisfying. That didn't feel integrated at all!

Plus, the anniversary gifts.... why didn't the two of them fess up earlier that that's why they were in London? When your own spouse is accusing you of murder, that's not a time to continue keeping secrets simply for the sake of romance!

I was also disappointed by the multiple points where the audience is expected to laugh at a man for acting gay, plus there's one joke that was made that expects the very idea of a person engaging in cross-dressing to be funny....and the whole audience laughed heartily at it. I hate that this happens every single time I go see theatre that has cross-dressing in it! Whether it's intentionally played for laughs or not, cross-dressing is somehow inherently hilarious to a normie audience, and it is infuriating to me.

In the end I'm glad I went to see the play for the experience, but it is not the strongest of mysteries, or even a particularly strong Agatha Christie story. But I do recommend going to see it live sometime if you ever have the chance!

Comments

[ivyfic]

I saw Mousetrap when I was in London. I’d read the play years ago, since the prohibition on publication and adaptation is limited to the UK. I found it lacked a little bit of the snap of pacing you get with fresher shows. But more that it was bizarre to see something that has been so influential and so parodied. There’s a feeling of—well, they can’t do that straight, that so cliche! But this is where the cliche came from. Like Clue is a direct satire of this and And Then There Were None. So it’s a weird museum piece, whose contractual restriction on adaptation while it’s on stage has meant far more people have seen its knockoffs than the thing itself.

[sophia_sol]

honestly it didn't feel that cliche to me because I haven't read/watched a whole lot of other stuff in the genre! though I can absolutely see now that you mention it how Clue is related, and I do love Clue a lot more lol

but I think my problem with Trotter being the answer isn't that it's so cliche, it's that it isn't an answer that engages interestingly with the themes that had been set up by the narrative? it feels very much like the kind of Shocking! Twist!!!! that a modern television show comes out with because the writers are mad about audiences having guessed what was originally planned to happen next next due to accurate analysis of the foreshadowing, but the tv show doesn't want to be predictable so they scrap the original plan to go for something out of left field.

[ivyfic]

I think when it came out, the ending was such a rule breaking left turn, that was why it was so popular. It’s just that we’ve come a long way from that with twist endings, so shock itself isn’t enough. I mean, I was sitting there thinking, this play has been running for my parents’ entire lives, and I’m not a spring chicken.

[ivyfic]

I think also the uk has its own thing with cross dressing men that I only glancingly understand (look at Monty python and panto). Not great though.

[thedarlingone]

Speaking as someone who's read a *lot* of Christie, I think all of her most famous pieces are the ones where she goes Shocking! Twist! -- her first big hit was Roger Ackroyd (where the narrator did it), there's Orient Express (where everyone did it), Then There Were None (where one of the early victims did it), and of course Mousetrap.

People talk about her as a "fair play" mystery writer, and I have a whole rant about that, because she's *not*. She's a very prolific writer who often relied on dated stereotypes and assumptions, concealed vital clues, and made her name on "you'll never see the twist coming" misdirection. Which is a valid thing to be, especially in the 1930s before it was so oversaturated, but I just don't understand why people associate her with "fair play" mystery writing.

[sophia_sol]

tbh I think she's more fair play than a lot of the mystery writers who came before her, at least when she started? like idk if you've read any 19th century mysteries other than holmes, but wow it's a whole different set of genre expectations. the stories about Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective, are on another level. Loveday Brooke stories aren't even trying to misdirect, because there's no conception that a mystery story is supposed to be about trying to guess whodunnit. like at least for christie the options ARE on the page, even if there are insufficient clues! I wonder if christie got her name for being a fair play mystery writer due to how early she was in the development of the idea of fair play as a thing for mysteries to be, and the genre got more strict and bounded in expectations from there

[kate_nepveu]

yeah, I read it recently and didn't get the appeal at all.

Witness for the Prosection at least has a banger ending, you know?

[sophia_sol]

yeah totally! the moustrap's ending is not a banger.

[lokifan]

I hate that this happens every single time I go see theatre that has cross-dressing in it! Whether it's intentionally played for laughs or not, cross-dressing is somehow inherently hilarious to a normie audience, and it is infuriating to me.

For real!