The Mousetrap -some bits and pieces

Some interesting bits and pieces:

• It is over 60 years since it opened, the first performance was  25 November 1952.
• The West end production has had over 25,000 performances.
• Remarkably it broke the record for the longest run of a play in the West End way back in September 1957.
• The original cast included Richard Attenborough.  There have been too many famous actors to name but Kiwi Alice Fraser was Mollie in the 21st year of the play (1978).
• Up until 2010 outside of the West End, only one version of the play could be performed annually.
• Agatha Christie thought it might run as long as 14 months.  It was originally a short story then a radio play.
• Each year the cast of the West End production has changes but by tradition at least one actor stays on each time.
• Canterbury Repertory Theatre was to have produced the first NZ production in 2010- but the earthquakes mean this will be the 7th production.
• Tom Stoppard's play The Real Inspector Hound parodies many elements of The Mousetrap, including the surprise ending- I've directed Hound  and the connections are interesting.