The Mousetrap’: Snowed In, With A Murderer On The Loose

By Nancy Stetson

How well can we really know someone, who they truly are, their motivations? We know what they tell us, what they want us to see. And for those who are evil or manipulative, the outer appearance can be just an illusion.

“You never know what anyone is really like or what they’re thinking,” says a character early on in Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap (playing on Gulfshore Playhouse’s Moran Mainstage in Naples through Feb. 15.)

This classic play, the longest-running in the world, is full of mischievous misdirection. The playwright toys with her audience like a cat plays with a mouse before killing it, while occasionally feeding us red herrings.

This is an ensemble piece. We’re presented with seven people snowed in at the Great Hall of Monkswell Manor in 1950s England. Five are guests (one shows up unexpectedly, claiming his car is stuck in a snowdrift) and two are the husband-and-wife hosts, Giles (Tony Carter) and Mollie (Tarah Flanagan).