Directed by B. Michael Quale

The Mousetrap is a mystery play by Agatha Christie. The play is known for having the longest initial run of any play in the world, with 22,800 performances in the course of its (as of August 15, 2007) nearly 55-year run in the West End of London. The play is known for its twist ending, which at the end of every performance the audience is asked not to reveal.

The story is about a young couple, Mollie and Giles Ralston, who have started up a new hotel in the converted Monkswell Manor. They are snowed in together with four guests and an additional traveller, who ran his car into a snowdrift. Detective Sergeant Trotter arrives on skis to inform the group that he believes a murderer is on his way to the hotel, following the death of Miss Maureen Lyon in London.

When one of the guests - Mrs Boyle - is killed, they realize that the murderer is already there. Although the suspicion falls first on Christopher Wren, an erratic young man who fits the description of the supposed murderer, it quickly transpires that the killer could be any one of the guests, or even the hosts themselves.

The play began life as a short radio play broadcast on May 30, 1947 called Three Blind Mice in honour of Queen Mary, the consort of King George V. The play had its origins in the real-life case of the death of a boy, Dennis O'Neill, who died whilst in the foster care of a Shropshire farmer and his wife in 1945 (See Three Blind Mice for details).

The play is based on a short story, itself based on the radio play, but Christie asked that the story not be published as long as it ran as a play in the West End of London. It has still not been published as a book within the United Kingdom, but the script is available. Under the contract terms of the play, no film adaptation can be produced until the West End production has been closed for at least six months.

When she wrote the play, Christie gave the rights to her grandson Mathew Prichard as a birthday present. Prichard currently owns the rights to all of her works.

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