It is of first necessity to love the tartan, porcelain, whiskey thirty years of age, and sweaters that scratch to enjoy The Mousetrap , in the Theatre of the Nursery. This piece, one of only two ever written by Agatha Christie, was inspired by a fait divers: the death of a young boy, Dennis O’neill, who died while he was staying in a host family of farmers from the Shropshire in 1945.
a Thriller in two acts for eight characters, the St Martin’s theatre in London plays The Mousetrap for half a century, and, to the right of the window, maintains the accounts: 27.000 performances to this day… At the end of which the viewer is asked not to reveal anything of the outcome. A petition had gathered a thousand signatures when Wikipedia was stung to do so, there are a dozen of years.
» READ ALSO In Devon, in the footsteps of Agatha Christie
The players, including the remarkable Dominique Daguier in major, play, sing, dance. The husband Ralston (Peter Samuel and Christelle Reboul) inaugurated their family pension. Four guests are expected, a fifth shows up to surprise but, to the favor of the murders in a row, there will thankfully have a room for all. Suddenly on the old transistor, a jazz sizzling leaves room for the newsletter. Nasal voice from the speakers of yesteryear: «Scotland Yard informs us that a dangerous individual, of average size, body type, indeterminate, wearing a long coat, a scarf and a hat.»
Reporting more helpful when he is outside in a meter of snow and five degrees below zero… The small assembly is found in isolation, cut off from the world and phone lines. In a mise en scène de Ladislas Chollat, who signs at the same time a Marivaux at the Théâtre Édouard VII, the closed very closed has no other intention than to entertain. It has been known to intrigue more breathless, but rarely of the victims better trussed.
Theatre of the Nursery, Paris (IIe). Tel.: 01.42.61.44.16.
