Bradley University Theatre is taking a stab at the longest-running play in history through its production of “The Mousetrap” by Agatha Christie.
The murder mystery opened in London in 1952 and has been running in the West End ever since. Director and assistant professor of theater arts Dan Matisa said when you take out the pandemic year of 2020, “The Mousetrap” is the longest- running performance of anything in the history of performance that can be tracked.
“So that’s pretty amazing,” he said. “Mery and I actually got to see ‘The Mousetrap’ along with some of the other students involved in the production over the J term in London. So, we got to see the currently running production of ‘The Mousetrap’ that's been going for 70 years with different casts every year.”
Mery Drilling-Coren is a junior theater arts performance major and plays the role of Mollie Ralston in the upcoming Bradley production. The play takes place in the early 1950s in a renovated monastery that has since been changed into an inn under the name of Monkswell Manor. Ralston runs the inn alongside her husband, Giles.
“It's actually their one-year anniversary on the opening, and so she's dealing with this new relationship with her husband, this new business opportunity that she's created. She's trying to make sure all the guests are getting along and everything and then a murder happens in her own home, and she doesn't really know what to do,” said Drilling-Coren.
With someone dead by the end of the first act, the play quickly turns into a classic “whodunnit” tale.
“I think it will be really really fun and exciting for audiences to be…detectives as they sit there in their seats and watch the play and listen to it, and sort of go through all the clues in that way that you do with Agatha Christie,” Matisa explained. “It's really, really fun.”
When it comes to directing a murder mystery, Matisa said it’s crucially important that he watches the play every night as if he’s seeing it for the first time.
“The challenge for me as the director is to put my mindset in the…headspace of the audience member who is seeing the play for the first time and what information we need to share with them without giving too much away. That's the balance,” Matisa said.
As an actor, Drilling-Coren said in order to keep those on-stage moments of discovery fresh from night to night, it really comes down to listening for the first time, every time.
“And each night it can be different, like if one word sticks out more than another, it's like, oh, this is why I say this. Or it's like, no, it's because I'm thinking about it while other people are talking and then I just say it. So, it's a lot of internal listening to your own self as the character, but also listening to everyone else around you,” she said.
With a psychologically complex show that allows audiences to track each character throughout their journey on stage, Matisa noted it’s all about “peeling the onion” and encouraging students to dive deeper and deeper into their characters.
When dealing with a play that’s been running for 70 years, it’s only fair to question why the tale remains one that is revisited time and time again by educational, professional, summer and regional theaters alike. Matisa believes the answer to that question stems from the sheer brilliance of Agatha Christie’s writing.
“You can connect the dots of every character in this thing and why they're a suspect,” said Matisa. “You can connect them psychologically…things get revealed in ways that you don't expect, or that you don't even see until maybe a second viewing or a third read of the play or just a deeper investigation, but it's just so layered. And that's the brilliance of Agatha Christie,” he said.
Though the play is a murder mystery at its core, it provides theater artists much to play with on stage.
“This play truly is a comedy until it is not, until the murder happens, and even then, there's some funny stuff,” Matisa said. “There are scenes that play like, you know, like a rom com. We’ve been discovering those in rehearsal. So, it's just so fun and funny and ultimately, I think, uplifting and positive.”
The cast is composed entirely of Bradley University students, is stage managed by Bradley alum Bailey Stockhecke and features work from student designers Carly Zukowski and Faith Gager.
The show runs at 7:30 p.m. April 12-15 and closes with a matinee at 2 p.m. on April 16 at the Hartmann Center on Bradley’s campus. For tickets and more information, visit Bradley University Theatre’s website.
