The Mousetrap

PROGRAM NOTES When asked what she wanted for her 81st birthday, Queen Mary responded, "A play by Agatha Christie." And so The Mousetrap was born, although originally it was written as a radio show titled Three Blind Mice. After its successful airing in London, Christie rewrote the show as a short novel, which was published in the United States, although never published in England. Shortly after that, Christie once again rewrote the radio show, this time into a stage play titled The Mouse Trap, which opened in 1952 at the Ambassador's Theatre in London. In 1974, the play moved to St. Martin's Theatre next door, where it has played uninterrupted since it opened. To date, the play has run for 54 years (for a total of more than 20,000 performances) without missing or cancelling a performance, even though the set was rebuilt once in the 197Os. Another interesting detail is that the same leather chair and mantel clock have appeared in every performance in the St. Martin's Theatre since opening night. The rights to the film version have been sold, but the contract stipulates that no film version may be produced until the play has closed in London for six months. Similarly, the show cannot be performed on Broadway until after the play has been closed for a six month period. Christie presented the rights to the play to her grandson Matthew Pritchard as a birthday present shortly after the play opened, and he now controls the rights to all of her works. Christina Genter Dramaturg