Stage set for original Mousetrap

Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of theater, will run for 12 shows at the Lyceum Theater in January, marking the first staging of the original production outside of the United Kingdom.

The Mousetrap is a murder mystery set among a collection of snowed-in guests and a detective at a country hotel as they try to figure out who among them is the killer.

Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen, the play's producer since 1994, will oversee the Shanghai shows.

"We hope that the audiences who see these Shanghai performances will enjoy them as much as the many millions who have seen [the play before] and that all of them will maintain the tradition of The Mousetrap by keeping the secret of 'whodunit' locked in their hearts," Sir Stephen said.

"We will soon reach 24,000 performances in London - so it is exciting to be innovative in Shanghai at the same time. We are very proud of the unique position that The Mousetrap holds in theater history," he said.

The Mousetrap Production Limited has been presenting the play at St Martin's Theater since 1974, but it actually premiered two decades earlier in 1952.

Shanghai Modern Theater Company purchased the Chinese rights over two years ago after three other companies had already staged various interpretations of the play in Shanghai.

"We've chosen the Lyceum Theater because it is very similar to St Martin's - both were built in the 1930s and have similar architectural styles," said Zhang Yu, director of the Modern Theater Company, which is organizing the English-language production in Shanghai.

"Even the size of the stage is the same, so the actors will have no difficulty adapting to the changed venue," he told China Daily.

The stage design and props were made in Shanghai according to a blueprint provided by the Mousetrap Production Limited, mostly to save on transportation costs. These savings translate into cheaper tickets for audiences, putting the show on a par with regular Chinese productions.

Jan 21 - Feb 3, 7:30 pm

Lyceum Theater

57 Maoming Road S

茂名南路57号

Tel: 6422-0926, 6256-5544

Tickets: 120-380 yuan

(China Daily 12/26/2009 page14)