Royal & Derngate Theatre, Northampton – until 17th February 2024
Review by Amanda Allen
4****
Seeing The Mousetrap is on many peoples buckets lists, as is fitting with its seventy year plus run. I was thrilled to be able to see the opening night of the 70th Anniversary touring production at The Northampton Derngate Theatre where its running until Saturday 17th February. The Mousetrap follows the classic Agatha Christie murder mystery novel, from the moment you are told there’s a murder you want to know ” whodunnit?” This is exactly what I was asking myself from the curtain rising until the end of the show when the cast finally disclosed the answer.
In keeping with the 1950’s setting of the play, the staging was wonderfully detailed, setting the scene with floral covered sofas and an overindulgence of small props, pictures, cushion, lamps, radio, telephone etc. These were all essential to the plot and well used by all the characters, but they all added to the slightly shambolic setting giving a real impression of a newly opened guest house. The staging was slightly let down by a none ringing telephone and out of time light switch, but I am sure these were just 1st night glitches.
For me there was no standout performance. A generally strong cast had the audience invested in the story from the beginning. Gwyneth Strong gave us a very dislikeable Mrs Boyle, with a suitably haughty, slightly miserable, complaining demeanour. Shaun McCourt was excellent if a little irritating in his portrayal of Christopher Wren, he gave the character enough camp flamboyance to make you sympathetic to him, without actually liking him very much, yet he still left enough to extend his characters mannerisms when required by the plot. Todd Carty totally owned the character of the Major, his presence instantly commanding the stage whenever he appeared. Steven Elliot (who is also resident director) as Mr Paravicini was able to express more with a timely raised eyebrow than many actors could hope to do in an entire performance!
Amy Spinks playing Miss Caswell was always in character, bold, sure of herself, supremely confident, slightly detached from everyone else, she surprised us all with the change in character to soft and caring at the end of the show. Detective Sgt Trotter was played very convincingly by Michael Ayiotis who seemed to be working in overdrive in comparison to the steady pace other characters, delivering some excellent comic timed moves many involving with skis. In all and excellent cast supported a great rendition of this classic play. I’m sure as the first night nerves calm, this will surely become a tighter and much more polished performance.
Although running pretty much unchanged for 70 plus years this play managed to be both completely outdated whilst still being entertaining and relevant to today’s theatrical expectations. The now standard who-done-it format with the final reveal having been copied by many tv shows from Agetha’s own Miss Marple to most notably the long running TV show “Death in Paradise”. This is a well tried and tested format that is proven to work.
The Mousetrap is a rite of passage suited to young and old alike, that everyone should try and see. With a little bit of everything from farce to murder I would definitely recommend seeing it whilst you can, it’s an excellent show right on your doorstep, no need to travel to London for a west end worthy performance and no, in keeping with a 70 year old plus tradition, I will not be telling you who did it!