The Mousetrap

About the show

The play is set in the Great Hall of Monkswell Manor, Berkshire, in what Christie described as "the present". Monkswell Manor is a recently converted guesthouse run by a young couple, Mollie and Giles Ralston. Mollie listens to a radio report about the murder of a woman named Maureen Lyon in Paddington, London; police are looking for a man in a dark overcoat. Their first four guests arrive: Christopher Wren, Mrs Boyle, Major Metcalf, and Miss Casewell. Christopher is an unkempt, flighty young man; Mrs Boyle is a constant complainer; Metcalf is an amiable ex-military man; and Miss Casewell is a mannish young woman. An unexpected fifth guest, Mr Paravicini, says his car has overturned in a snowdrift and the denizens of the house are snowed in. Uneasy, Mollie nevertheless places Paravicini in the last remaining room. The next afternoon, Sergeant Trotter of the Berkshire Police arrives at the guesthouse on skis, while Metcalf discovers that the phone has stopped working. Trotter explains he has been sent regarding the murder of Maureen Lyon. The dead woman and her husband had mistreated their three foster children, the Corrigans, which resulted in the youngest's death. Police suspect the killer is the elder Corrigan boy, who would now be twenty-two. A notebook at the murder scene contained the address of Monkswell Manor and the words "Three Blind Mice", while a note reading "This is the First" was pinned to the woman's body. Giles, Mollie, and all five guests deny a connection to the case. Afterward, Metcalf confronts Mrs Boyle, revealing that she was one of the magistrates who had assigned the children to the foster parents. Later in the evening, Mrs Boyle wanders back into the now-empty room. The opening notes of "Three Blind Mice" are heard whistled by an unknown party and the lights go out. Moments later, Mollie finds Mrs Boyle dead on the floor. Sergeant Trotter takes charge of the household, gathering the remaining residents together. Mollie cannot provide him with any useful clues. As each person recounts their whereabouts, Trotter observes various weaknesses in their stories, declaring that everyone had the opportunity to commit the murder. Giles counters that only one person fits the suspect's description: Christopher Wren, who insists that it is all a frame-up. Trotter adds that the dead boy had other relatives and loved ones who might be interested in revenge, meaning that anyone in the guesthouse could be the killer. He also notes that both Giles and Mollie had secretly been in London on the day of the first murder. Trotter forces the aghast Mollie to admit that the couple knows little about each other's pasts. Christopher Wren later confesses to Mollie that he is actually an army deserter under a false name, and Mollie acknowledges that she, too, is running away from her past. Again calling the household together, Trotter declares that he intends to check everyone's alibis. They will re-enact the murder; each person will act out another's alibi, with the hope that one alibi will be proved impossible. The household obediently disperses, leaving Trotter alone onstage. Trotter calls for Mollie and reveals he knows she was the schoolteacher of the Corrigan children. She failed to answer a letter the younger boy sent her, begging to be rescued from foster care. Due to illness, Mollie did not read the letter until after the boy's death; she is haunted by her failure to help. Trotter points a gun at Mollie, telling her that he is not a real policeman and that he cut the house's telephone wires. He is actually Georgie, the elder Corrigan brother. He begins to strangle Mollie, but is stopped by the sudden appearance of Miss Casewell. She calls him by name and reveals that she is his long-lost sister Kathy, come to take him somewhere safe. Metcalf discloses that he himself is an undercover policeman; he arranged to replace the real Metcalf at the guesthouse to investigate and hid Trotter's skis after growing suspicious, preventing Trotter from escaping. Giles and Mollie admit that they were both secretly in London buying presents, as today is their first wedding anniversary.