Agatha Christie's acclaimed murder mystery The Mousetrap kicks off its 2024 season at Newcastle's Civic Theatre on May 11.
The Mousetrap is the longest-running West End show and has the longest run of any play anywhere in the world, with more than 28,500 performances to date.
When a local woman is murdered, the guests and staff at Monkswell Manor find themselves stranded during a snowstorm. It soon becomes clear that the killer is among them, and the seven strangers grow increasingly suspicious of one another. When a second murder takes place, tensions and fears escalate.
The play has a twist ending which the audience are traditionally asked not to reveal after leaving the theatre.
Reprising their roles from last year's sell-out capital city tour are Helpmann Award-winner Alex Rathgeber (Anything Goes, The Phantom of the Opera) as Giles Ralston, the husband of the new owner of Monkswell Manor; Gerry Connolly (Cyrano de Bergerac, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui) as Mr Paravicini, an unexpected visitor at the manor; and Geraldine Turner (Wicked, Present Laughter) as the retired magistrate Mrs Boyle.
Hannah Fredericksen (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Dream Lover) joins the cast as Mollie Ralston, the young owner of Monkswell Manor, a Victorian-era estate that has recently been converted into a guest house. Chris Parker (Mamma Mia, Summer Rain) plays retired British military officer Major Metcalf. Miranda Daughtry (The Bleeding Tree, Three Sisters) will play Miss Casewell, who remains mysteriously aloof from the other guests, while Timothy Walker (Before the Meeting, The Great) is detective sergeant Trotter.
The Mousetrap is directed by Robyn Nevin AO, who has played leading roles at all of Australia's major theatre companies, in London's West End and in the US, and appeared in films such as The Castle, Emerald City, Careful He Might Hear You and The Matrix.
The Mousetrap had its world premiere on October 6, 1952, at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham, opening in London's West End on November 25, 1952, at the Ambassadors Theatre where it ran until March 23, 1974. It immediately transferred to the larger St Martin's Theatre next door where it continues to this day.
Agatha Christie originally wrote the story as a short radio play entitled Three Blind Mice, which was broadcast in 1947 as a birthday present for Queen Mary. She eventually adapted the work into a short story before again rewriting it for the stage as The Mousetrap. Ironically, Christie did not expect the play to run for more than a few months and stipulated that no film of The Mousetrap be made until at least six months after the West End production closed.
Seventy years on, as the show continues its historic London run, a film adaptation looks unlikely at this stage.
