A play fit for a queen!
When Queen Mary was asked what she would like for her 80th birthday, she requested a new story from one of her favourite writers, Agatha Christie.
Who could say no to the queen? Agatha happily obliged and created Three Blind Mice. This would then become the longest-running show of any kind, now known as The Mousetrap, set to come to Orange Civic Theatre for the first time in June.
Three Blind Mice started as a radio play that derived from a real-life news story in 1945. The news was a case that shocked the nation, about two brothers abused in foster care, one of whom died as a result. It later resulted in the changing of the laws surrounding foster care.
The radio play was first broadcast on the BBC in 1947. Agatha then adapted the 30-minute radio play to a short story, published in Cosmopolitan magazine in 1948, and later in the 1950 US collection Three Blind Mice and Other Stories.
The short story version was never published in the UK on Christie’s insistence that it should not clash with the 1952 stage adaptation, famously renamed The Mousetrap. As long as the adaptation ran in London’s West End (as it has for over 70 years) the short story wasn’t to be published.
Before it opened, Agatha Christie gave the rights to The Mousetrap to her nine-year-old grandson Mathew Prichard without any idea that it would become a huge record-breaking phenomenon.
The Mousetrap opened on November 25, 1952. The late Deryck Guyler provided the pre-recorded voice of the newsreader in the first act and the same recording is still used today.
But it’s not just its history that makes this play so intriguing: because you don’t just watch this play… you solve it.
As news spreads of a murder in London, a group of seven strangers find themselves snowed-in at a remote countryside guesthouse. When a police sergeant arrives, the guests discover – to their horror – that a killer is in their midst! One by one, the suspicious characters reveal their sordid pasts. Which one is the murderer? Who will be their next victim? Can you solve this world-famous mystery for yourself?
For over 70 years, Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap has kept millions of people from every corner of the globe on the edge of their seats. This year, the production is touring Australia’s regions, after its success in the big cities last year.
Produced by John Frost for Crossroads Live Australia and Shake & Stir Theatre Co, The Mousetrap will be directed by Australia’s Robyn Nevin with costume design and associate set design by Isabel Hudson and lighting design by Trudy Dalgleish.
The Mousetrap will showcase at Orange Civic Theatre from June 27 - June 30. Tickets are already selling quickly, jump onto Orange Civic Theatre’s website to find out more.
PHOTO: Brian Geach