Agatha Christie’s classic mystery play “The Mousetrap” was first performed in London on October 6, 1952. It has become a staple of family friendly theatre ever since.

I performed in it during a 1980 summer stock performance back in 1980, at the Highlands Playhouse some 52 years ago. I played Giles Ralston, the husband of the owner of the tourist inn where the action takes place. All the pictures in this post are from that production. I later saw the production in London (which is still running -the longest continuous running play in the West End.) That was a great summer for many reasons. I daresay our production holds up well to the London version, except that the British accents in the West End were better and more consistent than the North Carolina production I was part of. Wonder why?

It is classic Agatha Christie with nearly every character having a motive to kill the victim early in the play and the script outlines why each could be guilty. Around and around we go with questions and suspicions until at the finale, a surprise killer is revealed. Indeed it is a standard request of the theatre where is is being performed to not discuss the identity of the killer outside of the audience you are with. This has worked over the decades to keep it generally a mystery from people who have not seen the show. Thus a manner to sell more tickets in the future.

Our director went even further and placed a box to collect ballots from audiences on who they thought was guilty in the play. The audiences really got into it and participated enthusiastically each night. We actors worked hard, sometimes subtly and sometimes energetically to be voted the likely killer by the audience. I am proud to announce that through the run of the show I received the most votes by the audience and won the choice on more nights than anyone else. I still won’t tell you who the real killer is. Go see the show. Now here is a photo of me visiting the site of the crime when I last took my Can-Am Spyder through the town back in 2021. Good disguise, huh?