| IF YOU GO |
| “The Mousetrap” |
| Where: 1st Stage, 1524 Spring Hill Road, McLean |
| When: 8 p.m. Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday; through Jan. 9 |
| Info: $15 to $25; New Year’s Eve performance (see Web site): $50; 703-854-1856; 1ststagespringhill.org |
Agatha Christie was one of the most ingenious and prolific mystery writers of all time, and her play “The Mousetrap,” at 1st Stage in McLean, is undoubtedly the most famous of her works, as engaging a thriller now as it was when it first appeared almost 60 years ago. “The Mousetrap” takes place on a wintry night in 1952 at the newly opened guest house of Mollie Ralston (Jennifer Weinreich) and Giles Ralston (John Stange). Married just a year, Mollie and Giles are excited to start their new business even though a blizzard is shutting off the hotel from the outside world.
The first four visitors arrive as scheduled: a high-strung young man, Christopher Wren (Karl Bittner); a demanding guest, Mrs. Boyle (Suzanne Richard); an Army officer, Major Metcalf (Patrick Smith); and a no-nonsense woman, Miss Casewell (Abby Wood).
No sooner do these characters begin to get to know one another than they are joined by another gentleman, a curious foreigner who speaks with a thick Italian accent, Mr. Paravicini (Luke Tudball), who claims his car overturned in a snowdrift. On the radio there is talk of a murder, which makes everyone nervous, and they begin to become suspicious of each other.
The performances are generally good, although there are some stilted British accents here and there. Bittner neatly captures the abnormally manic behavior of Wren, as he flits from room to room. Richard is excellent in the role of Mrs. Boyle, the obnoxious guest who is unhappy with every aspect of the lodgings — the food, her room, the heat, the guests. As Richard ratchets up her disgust, she alienates everyone else.
Weinreich makes clear Mollie Ralston’s fussy and fervent desire to succeed as a hostess. Wood is strong as the distant Miss Casewell, who seems uninterested in making friends. Tudball’s outrageous Paravicini is amusing.
The goal of Act I is to establish how well or badly the characters get along, and that goal is convincingly achieved when, at the end of the act, one of them turns up dead. A policeman, in the person of Detective Sergeant Trotter (Arden Moscati) arrives to investigate, and it turns out that everyone left alive had means, motive and opportunity to commit the murder.
The set for this “Mousetrap” suggests a warm, paneled old house, with various rooms for potential murderers to enter and exit, a comfortable couch and some beautiful mahogany sculpted chairs. C. Ian Campbell’s lighting design creates various evocative moods. Jennifer M. Allevato’s costumes paint a picture of rural England in the 1950s, using browns, tans and an occasional violet touch.
Despite the fact that it represents the script faithfully, this production doesn’t have enough of the thing that has made “The Mousetrap” the world’s longest-running show for 58 years: suspense. Director Jessica Lefkow never quite succeeds at creating a frightening ambience by having her characters threaten one another verbally. When the skis that Sergeant Trotter uses to ski into the snowbound guest house disappear, the sense that seven people are stranded and that there is a murderer among them barely creates a fuss, much less panic.
The most successful element of this “Mousetrap” is its sound, designed by John Yu. Whenever a suspicious character is investigated, there is a subtle, single piano note played very quietly over and over, then the next note up the scale is heard, again just audibly. The tension it brings to this “Mousetrap” is palpable.
