More than 10 million people have been enticed into this ingenious trap and I am glad to be one of them. Emerging from the New Ambassadors Theatre in London, after seeing a brilliant performance of Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House", I look up. Next door, at St. Martin's Theatre, the neon lights advertise "The longest running play in the world" and I am lured into "The Mousetrap", Agatha Christie's play that completed 50 years of its continuous run recently, a feat unmatched in theatre history.

It was first staged on November 25, 1952. Perhaps, the typical Christie blend of suspense and crime was what people needed to take their minds off the harsh reality of day to day life as the effects of the war were still being felt - insecurity, rationing of food items and the limping back to normality.
The play owed its origin to the wish of royalty. When the late Queen Mary was asked what she would like as a gift for her birthday, she replied "a play by Agatha Christie".

Touched, the Queen of Crime dashed off a radio play for the BBC "Three Blind Mice" which later evolved into "The Mousetrap". Little did Christie or her friend Sir Peter Saunders, the original producer of "The Mousetrap"; dream that it would draw audiences so consistently.
The play was entered in the Guinness Book of Records and actor David Raven playing the role of Major Metcalf put in a record 4,575 performances.
The play was translated into 24 languages and has been performed in 44 countries. As many as 318 actors and actresses have participated in the successive productions. The shirts ironed for the cast, we are told, if hung out will stretch to 93 miles and the amount of ice cream consumed by audiences adds up to a mouth watering 330 tonnes.

This is a very child-friendly play. The playwright did not get a single penny from it because she bequeathed the royalties to her nine-year-old grandson from which, a theatre was built at South Wales. Charities were also set up including the Agatha Christie Trust for Children.

So happy was Christie with the success of the play that when it broke theatre records in 1974, she gifted a well-crafted mousetrap to the Ambassador Theatre where the play was premiered and enjoyed 21 years of its run.

It was shifted, without a break in performance, to the St. Martin's theatre next door in 1974 as it had a larger seating capacity.

As you go up the steep stairs of St. Martin's and enter the huge auditorium, it is as if you are back 50 years in time. Though refurbished recently, it has an old world charm.

If you expected an empty hall, you are in for a surprise. People begin trickling in in twos and threes. Many of them seem to enjoy being part of a historic experience.

The play's appeal lies in its being so British. No wonder the first producer, Sir Peter Saunders, described Agatha Christie as being as English as "the Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London and the House of Commons".This had its flip side too and Christie was called a racist by some and the title of one of her novels Ten Little Niggers was changed to And There Were None.

By the time "The Mousetrap'' was written, Agatha Christie was already famous. The Belgian detective Hercule Poirot with his egg-shaped head and passion for order and neatness became as well loved as Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. Seldom could the reader spot the killer - so skilfully did Christie weave her plots in one mystery after another.

Years later, the fluffy haired, adorable Miss Marple, the most unlikely detective, was invented by Christie.

By the time of her 80th birthday, Christie had written 80 novels. The prolific writer produced 21 plays, nine of which were adapted from her own novels. She also wrote six romantic novels under the pseudonym, Mary Westmacott.

The enduring appeal of "The Mousetrap" delighted Christie. It led to the founding of Mousetrap Productions in 1994 and David Turner became its Artistic Director. Seasoned actors vie with one another to be part of the cast. Peter Saunders sold the film rights of "The Mousetrap" in 1956 on the condition the film would be made only six months after the play was taken off the boards. Years later the buyers are still waiting ...

And the neon lights announcing "The Mousetrap" seem to have become a permanent part of the London skyline.

KAUSALYA SANTHANAM
December 2002