The Mousetrap Deftly Takes On Christie Classic

By Harriet Heithaus

The Mousetrap comes to Gulfshore Playhouse with a long and daunting history. To begin with, it is still playing in London more than 74 years — yes, 74 — after it opened Nov. 25, 1952, with only a break during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The thriller was actually a commissioned birthday gift. England’s Queen Mary had requested a radio drama from novelist-playwright Agatha Christie, who was already a national star with such works as And Then There Were None and Witness for the Prosecution.

Finally, this whodunnit invests the audience; one of the cast members publicly asks after the final applause that we keep the murderer’s identification to ourselves.