Mousetrap at Grand Rapids Civic Theatre

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Mousetrap written by Agatha Christie

I just got back from seeing Mousetrap at Grand Rapids Civic Theatre. What is Mousetrap all about? Well, I promised not to give to say much about the story. 

Here is a little synopsis without giving you too much: 
        A group of strangers is stranded in a boarding house during a snow storm, one of whom is a murder. The suspects include the newly married couple who run the house, and the suspicions in their minds nearly wreck their perfect marriage. Others are a spinster with a curious background, an architect who seems better equipped to be a chef, a retired Army major, a strange little man who claims his car has overturned in a drift, and a jurist who makes life miserable for everyone. Into their midst comes a policeman traveling on skis. he no sooner arrives, when the jurist is killed. Two down, and one to go. To get to the rationale of the murderer's pattern, the policeman probes the background of everyone present, and rattles a lot of skeletons. Another famous Agatha Christie switch finish! Chalk up another superb intrigue  for the foremost mystery writer of her time. Can you solve the mystery? 
 

The performance starts with a projection screen showing a film of the first murder. You know how much I hate seeing projection screens in theatre shows, but it worked for this show. Plus, it was only done once and that was it. This film clip made me really want the Civic to show some classic movies on the huge projection screen. The screen is so much bigger then the movie theatres. Back to the show. The curtain then goes up showing a huge living room area of a castle mansion. David Len, the set designer, always goes above and beyond the call of duty.  He puts so much detail into it.  He is so talented. 
   The performances were well done. The performers that really stood out was Nancy Wagner who is playing Mrs. Boyle. The role of Mrs. Boyle could have overacted making this character old and really mean, but Nancy didn't do that. She made this character believable. Another performer that stood out to me was Rachel Varley who plays Mollie Ralston. She was gorgeous and her accent was dead on. This play is set in 1952 and she 100% fit a lady in the 1950s. 
  The direction was done Penelope Notter. She is one of the best directors here in West Michigan. She pays attention to details. She can take a not so good play and make it look wonderful. She is great at choosing actors for parts. Yes, I have seen some of her shows thinking "why did you choose that actor?", but 90% of the time she is dead on with choosing the right actor. 
   Things that bugged me. First thing that drove me nuts was actor Sophie Anne Hillier who played character Miss Casewell smoking cigarettes.   I could tell in real life she never smoked a cigarette in her life because she held it those cigarettes so awkwardly.  It looked like they didn't use those fake herbal cigarettes because it never burned down.
    The play in general is not my thing. I felt there is alot of dialogue that didn't need to be in there. The show ran about 2 1/2 hour. I felt thirty minutes could have been cut out of it.  

   The show is running till Febuary 7, 2015 at the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre. 
Wednesday-Saturday show time is 7:30pm and Sunday 2:00pm. 

Get tickets at http://www.grct.org/purchasetickets.html

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Miss Casewell played by Sophie Anne Hillier
Mr. Paravicini played by Don Vanden Heuvel
Mr. Raiston played by Joe Ruberg
Mrs. Boyle played by Nancy Wagner
Christopher Wren played by Eric Hatch
Detective Trotter played by Jason T. Morrison
Mrs. Raiston played by Rachel Varley
Major Metcalf played by Patrick A. Hendren