I wonder about the role this play plays in the tropes of mystery theater. A little more research would obviously give me the answer, but I am staying in the dark on this one. Whether this is the play that created the tropes of the locked mansion mystery — ala Clue, Gosford Park, etc — or merely the one the best capitalized on it, I am uncertain.
The play itself is about a newly opened “Guest House” — basically Air BnB in an older English mansion — in the middle of a snowstorm right after the second world war. The young married couple who runs it (alone) begin the play off by establishing their quaintness to one another while we hear the reports of a murderer on the loose, a murderer who broadly meets the description of the husband.
As the guests arrive we get the stuffy, annoying, annoyed harridan, we get the young mysterious man with a familiar name, we get a retired army colonel, a youngish single woman, and eventually an eccentric older man, not booked for the night, but snowed in and in need of a place.
As we wait for things to happen, the food is ok, there’s not enough alcohol, and the older woman is complaining that HAD SHE KNOWN this place had just opened up, she might look for other arrangements, which she is invited to do.
Oh, and the police show up too.
So this is apparently the longest running play in London’s West End, which is interesting because while it’s apparently a staple, it’s mostly just…fine. And also the original production had Richard Attenborough, which is fun.
(Photo: https://www.amazon.com/Mousetrap-Agatha-Christie/dp/0573702446/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?keywords=the+mousetrap+by+agatha+christie+script&qid=1551747601&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmr1)