Agatha Christie's 'The Mousetrap' at the McCarter

Director Adam Immerwahr's fine production makes a strong case, however, for why this play deserves McCarter's, and our, serious attention.

First of all, there's nothing wrong with well-crafted suspense, and Christie didn't achieve international fame as a novelist and playwright for writing slop. The Mousetrap expertly pins seven characters — two proprietors of a new guest house and five mysterious visitors — in the house with a ferocious snowstorm and news of a murderer on the loose. Sure, all this is established by the expository shortcut of radio news bulletins (and you just know the phone's not going to work), but Christie charges past the formalities to introduce her characters.

"First impressions are so important," we're told, and Christie makes sure everyone receives a distinctive entrance. Characters could be easily labeled with a single adjective — Andy Phelan's Christopher Wren is flighty, Sandra Shipley's Mrs. Boyle is dour, Graeme Malcolm's Major Metcalf is gruff — but all are played with three-dimensional sincerity, not as stereotypes. All have crisp edges, and soon grate on each other's nerves. "You never know what anyone's really like," Wren quips, and Christie's artfulness is clear: these humorously dysfunctional catty strangers could all be murderers.

She's great at building cases against characters through others' suspicions: Certain that someone in their midst is the killer, they turn on each other, even likeable overwhelmed hosts Mollie (Jessica Bedford) and Giles Ralston (Adam Green).

Modern aspects

Immerwahr allows a modern frankness about sexuality that shows Christie ahead of her time: Christopher Wren is openly gay, Emily Young's Miss Casewell is undeniably lesbian, and neither is shy about expressing their interests. Perhaps in 1952 this, underplayed, came across as eccentricity; the lines haven't changed, but our understanding and tolerance have.

The Mousetrap also feels ahead of its time for the killer's motivations. Without giving too much away — we're actually warned in a post-show speech not to spill the play's secrets — the new crimes are connected to the shocking abuse of orphans by their adoptive parents.

A line from Christie to the profiling, motivation-musing, and quick psychological diagnoses of Criminal Minds and its ilk is easy to draw. Unlike those shows, however, which are not mysteries since they reveal the killer early and then show us how the authorities catch up, the climactic revelation in The Mousetrap elicits many gasps.

Immerwahr can't resist a little modern razzamatazz, however, with a completely unnecessary backlit-shadows curtain raiser that could have been the opening credits for a 1970s Agatha Christie Presents TV anthology series, had one existed. Sound designer Nick Kourtides engineers a have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too solution, however, with some act-ending suspenseful music blasting from Christie's handy radio.

Author’s note: For more Christie: The Hedgerow Theatre in Rose Valley opens a new stage adaptation by Jared Reed of Christie's first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, from March 17 to May 8 (610-565-4211 or HedgerowTheatre.org). My review is here.

Editor’s note: For more Christie: Lifetime TV just aired a new BBC adaptation of And Then There Were None with a killer (sic) cast: Charles Dance, Sam Neill, Miranda Richardson, and others. Available at mylifetime.com and On Demand.