Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap" opens in London - November 25th, 1952

On this day in 1952, “The Moustrap,” a murder-mystery play by Agatha Christie, made its London debut at the Ambassadors Theatre.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio, Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show that raises the curtain on everyday history and
lets it take a bow. I'm Gabe Louzier and today
we're looking at how a humble who Done It made
theatrical history by becoming the world's longest running play. The

(00:28):
day was November nifty two. The mouse Trap, a murder
mystery play by Agatha Christie, made its London debut at
the Ambassador's Theater. The show was such a crowd pleaser
that it stuck around for the next six years, making
it the longest running show in the history of British theater.

(00:51):
But The mouse Trap success didn't stop there, and neither
did its ongoing performances. In the nineteen seventies, it became
the longest running play in the world, and some five
decades later, that record still stands. The play began as
a radio drama loosely based on the real life murder

(01:12):
of a teenage boy named Dennis O'Neill. In O'Neill was
killed by his foster father, who had been starving and
abusing the boy for months at their isolated Farmhouse and Shropshire.
Two years later, Agatha Christie recalled the sad story when
she was asked to contribute to an evening of BBC

(01:34):
radio programs celebrating Queen Mary's eightieth birthday. Christie's contribution was
a thirty minute radio drama called Three Blind Mice. Christie
later reworked the material, expanding it first into a short
story and then into a full length stage play. Along

(01:55):
the way, the title was changed to The mouse Trap
to avoid confusion with a different play called Three Blind
Mice that had already been produced in London's West End.
The new title was suggested by Christie's son in law,
and is itself a reference to the play within a
play that appears in William Shakespeare's Hamlet. When Hamlet's traitorous

(02:17):
uncle turned king asks his nephew the name of the
play they're watching, Hamlet says, it's called the mouse Trap.
That's not actually the right title, but Hamlet believes the
plays the thing that will catch the guilty conscience of
the king, so in a way it is a mouse trap.
As for the story of Agatha Christie's mouse Trap, it

(02:39):
takes place in the Great Hall of Monkswell manner, a
recently converted guesthouse run by a young couple. In short order,
the hosts and their guests are trapped in the house
by a snowstorm, and they quickly learned through radio reports
that a murderer is on the loose in the area.
Soon at after, a detective arrives on skis and tells

(03:03):
the group that, based on the timeline and geography of
the crime, the murderer and likely their next victim, are
probably members of the Monkswell party. From there, a stream
of clues reveals and m directs so distrust and panic
among the now potential suspects. The tension rises, along with

(03:25):
the snow and the body count, until the play finally
reaches its famous twist ending, which don't worry, I won't
spoil it here. The request for discretion is actually one
of the play's long standing traditions. During the curtain call
of each performance, the person who has just been revealed
as the murderer steps forward and tells the audience quote,

(03:48):
now that you have seen the mouse trap, you are
our partners in crime, and we ask you to preserve
the tradition by keeping the secret of who done it.
Locked in Your Hearts. Agatha Christie also did her part
to help preserve the surprise. She asked that the short
story version not be published while the play was still

(04:10):
running in the West End of London. As a result,
the short story has still never been published within the
United Kingdom, though it did appear in the United States
in the nineteen fifty collection Three Blind Mice and Other Stories.
Unlike many other popular stage plays, the mouse Trap doesn't

(04:30):
rely on the star power of its cast to fill seats. Instead,
the main appeal comes from the author and from the
play's own notoriety. To date, more than four hundred performers
have taken on the roles of the plays eight characters.
There have been a few standouts, like Richard Attenborough and

(04:50):
his real life wife Sheila sim who both starred in
the show during its premier run. There's also David Raven,
who set a record by playing the role of Major
Metcalf for a staggering four thousand, five hundred and seventy
five performances, winning him the Guinness World Record for World's

(05:11):
most durable Actor. Another record holder is Nancy Seabrook, the
world's most patient understudy, who almost played the role of
Mrs Boyle for fifteen years. The other claim to fame
concerning the show's cast belongs to the late Derek Geiler.
His voice was heard on opening night reading the radio

(05:34):
news bulletin in the play, and all these years later,
a recording of his voice still fills that role, making
him the only original cast member still involved with the production.
Despite the show's incredible longevity, it's actually not considered Christie's
best work, or even her best play. On opening night,

(05:57):
one critic called it quote the cleverest murder mystery ever
written for the British theater, but that view has soured
over the years, with one well known stage director later
declaring that quote the mouse Trap should be abolished by
an Act of Parliament. One common criticism is that the

(06:17):
play strains believability by piling too many plausible killers into
one small group. Another is that there just isn't enough
action to keep things interesting for the full run time.
So how or why did The mouse Trap go on
to become the longest continuously running play in history. Well,

(06:39):
Agatha Christie had her own thoughts on the show's enduring popularity.
She explained, quote, it is the sort of play you
can take anyone to. It is not really frightening, it
is not really horrible, It is not really a farce.
But it has a little bit of all these things
and perhaps that satisfies a lot of different people. A

(07:01):
lot of different people is putting it lightly. Well over
ten million people have attended one of the plays nearly
thirty thousand performances. The first nine thousand or so performances
were at the Ambassador's Theater, then in nineteen seventy four
the show moved to its current home at West Ends

(07:22):
St Martin's Theater. The show went on its first ever
hiatus in March of when it was forced to close
due to the COVID nineteen pandemic. Thankfully, the production has
resumed performances at St Martin's beginning on May seventeen one.
Tickets are currently on sale. If you'd like to see

(07:43):
the show for yourself, it might not be the best
live theater you ever see, but at this point it's
a London institution and a rite of passage for visitors
and locals alike. Just make sure that once you're in
on the secret, you keep it to yourself. I'm Gabe
Lousier and hopefully you now know a little more about

(08:05):
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this Day at I heart media dot com. Thanks to
Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank you for listening.

(08:28):
I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another Day
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