The Mousetrap

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

Agatha Christie captured theatergoer’s imagination with her mystery plays. The Mousetrap has been running continuously in London’s West End since the late 1950s. The biggest mystery of all is in this time and space, why? Her writing is simple to the point, nearly to boredom. She concocts distracting action and suspicion, but leaves large footprints to uncover the tracks of who done it. All one has to do is pay attention to fast paced comings and goings on and off the stage to figure out the culprit. Maybe that’s the key: being able to pay attention. Most of the Mousetrap productions allow Christie’s dialogue to force feed the imagination, while the characters become one dimensional paper dolls.

There is, however, one bright exception. Under the direction of Bill McHale, Country Dinner Playhouse’s Mousetrap production knows exactly where to place the cheese. The outstanding cast provides each character with heart, soul, humor, sensitivity, and foibles. McHale knows how to make the most of that theatre in the round stage. He understood precisely what each audience member must witness to get caught up in the fun. The cast of eight understood exactly what they had to do to allow their characters to shine in the madcap mayhem of romping on and offstage. It matters little who done it. What matters most? The characters are sheer unadulterated fun. Because they are fun, the game of intrigue keeps the intermission conversation rolling freely. The juiciness of the characters makes it matter who done it.

In the winter of 1952, Mollie and Giles Ralston (Beth Beyers and Marcus Waterman) have taken a leap of faith in running Monkswell Manor, an isolated country inn. A woman has been murdered. It’s snowing, and Molly and Giles find themselves playing host to a motley group of houseguests. Beyers and Waterman wonderfully set the stage with their hopes, dreams, insecurities, anxieties and nervousness showing through the character’s hue with expertise.

Jan Waterman as Mrs. Boyle snobbishly explodes onto stage with Major Metcalf (Jeff Cyonek) demanding a servant for her every whim. Horrified she is, to find there are no servants but Mollie and Ralston. She makes it clear she doesn’t understand how an inn can be run without proper servants.

Childlike Christopher Wren (Josh Robinson) playfully saturates himself with silly rhymes. With his jumping and leaping, Robinson plays Wren slightly over the top with a Peter Pan effect.

Thaddeus Valdez gives a secret mysterious quality to Mr. Paravicini not only with his lines, but also with his off Standish mannerisms. Valdez is scrumptious.

Laura Ryan confuses the issues even further with her secretive man/woman approach to Leslie Casewell, a deliberate offense to the hoity toity Mrs. Boyle.

No one is going anywhere. The weather has seen to that. Into the midst of confusion, Detective Sergeant Trotter (Joseph Bearss) skis his way to the inn, convinced the murderer hides among the strange mixture.

Everyone is under suspicion. Three Blind Mice becomes a theme song for the weekend. Wren sings it over and over. It is played on an off stage piano in the middle of the night.

Act One introduces the characters to their conflicts and foibles. Act Two dives head first with everyone accusing everyone else of the possibility of hiding the cheese. There are moments when the dialogue gets bogged down, and there is the wanting to not pay attention. But the highly talented cast keeps their characters on top of it.

Country Dinner Playhouse has certainly had its share of difficulties as of late, but McHale is back. He knows how to chose his artists. He knows his stage. He knows how to take limp writing and transform it into mysterious intrigue; He knows where the cheese is. For those reasons alone, this is a show not to be missed.