[NEohioPAL] Review of "The Mousetrap" at Great Lakes Theater

[Bob Abelman]

Great Lakes' mystery 'Mousetrap' provides its own spoiler

 

Bob Abelman

 

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times,

The Morning Journal, Geauga Times Courier

Member, American Theatre Critics Association 

 

This review will appear in the Herald on 3/16/12

 

 

There is no mystery surrounding the success of Agatha Christie's classic whodunit "The Mousetrap," now in its 60th consecutive year of production at the Ambassador Theatre in London and currently being performed by Great Lakes Theater at PlayhouseSquare.

 

Originally written as a short radio drama in 1947 by the grand matron of murder mysteries, the full-length stage play contains all the quintessential ingredients for suspense that have since become iconic requirements for the genre.

 

There's the group of quirky strangers who are fortuitously brought together to witness, cause, or fall victim to murder most foul.  

 

Each stranger appears to be as guilty as the next, despite airtight alibis that will eventually unravel in the hands of a seemingly incompetent or unlikely crime-solver. 

 

Their gathering place offers a labyrinth of dark passageways suitable for fast escapes and the concealment of weapons, clues and cadavers, with melodrama lurking around every corner.  

 

Red herrings swim upstream and spawn.    

 

In "The Mousetrap," the action unfolds in a Victorian era guest house outside of London, run by the newly wedded Mollie and Giles Ralston (Jodi Dominick and Paul Hurley). Their guests arrive, one after the other, on the heels of a strange murder that took place in London and during a winter storm that holds everyone captive.  It is just after World War II, and years of fear, paranoia and depravation have taken their toll on everyone's disposition.  Tension is thick and tempers are short.

 

The first guest, Christopher Wren (Ryan David O'Byrne), is a friendly but highly neurotic and disturbing young man.  Next to arrive is an ex-magistrate, Mrs. Boyle (Laura Perrotta), who secretes negativity so pungent it enters the room before she does.  She is immediately followed by the stoic Major General Metcalf (Aled Davies) and the masculine and oddly secretive Miss Casewell (Sara Bruner).  The last to arrive is an unexpected guest; an affluent foreigner named Mr. Paravicini (Tom Ford) who claims to have been stranded when his car hit a snowdrift.  

 

Just as everyone settles in, a phone call announces the arrival of Detective Sergeant Trotter (Dan Lawrence), who is acting on evidence that the killer responsible for the London murder will be claiming two more victims at the Victorian guest house.  Let the games begin.

 

In addition to their core components, murder mysteries tend to be wordy affairs that are laden with exposition to set up the convoluted drama, loaded with plot twists and turns, and layered with distraction to disguise the mystery's eventual resolution.  "The Mousetrap" is no exception.  In fact, given its origins as a radio drama and Christie's craftsmanship as a novelist, it is a particularly wordy play.

 

The professionals at Great Lakes Theater address this reality in several ways, some of them successful.  

 

Because this troupe of performers is well-schooled in all things Shakespeare-GLT's previous production was the wonderful "The Taming of the Shrew" and its next will be "Romeo and Juliet"-the volume of verbiage in this play is spoken swiftly, eloquently, and with great clarity.  Each actor creates a vivid and intriguing character while capturing all the play's nuance and suspense at a steady clip.

 

Less effective is director Drew Barr's big-picture approach to the material, which attempts to bring novelty to this old chestnut by embellishing its radio drama roots and engaging the audience's imagination accordingly.  

 

Rather than creating a realistic looking rural manor, the performance space is as vacant and sterile as an old-time radio broadcast booth.  When actors exit the stage they casually reappear and take a seat in a chair as if awaiting their next cue.  Daniel Kluger's eerie sound effects, such as the echoic creaking of ancient pipes, add the ambiance of an on-air radio program.

 

These things actually work as dramatic devices.  What does not is a massive, steaming set piece toward the rear of the stage that resembles the guts of a radio through which characters occasionally come and go.  At several points in the play, radio broadcasts themselves serve as the play's narrative, including an odd moment when Detective Trotter offers directives into a standup microphone that are relayed through a radio.  These things seem to place style over substance.  

 

At the end of the play the actors ask that the audience never reveal the identity of the murderer to others, but it is this production's effort to bring something new to Christie's classic that serves as the spoiler.  Still, this is an intriguing, well-performed production of a very well written murder mystery.

 

"The Mousetrap" continues through March 25 at PlayhouseSquare's Hanna Theatre in downtown Cleveland.  For tickets, which range from $15 to $70, call 216-241-6000 or visit www.greatlakestheater.org.

 
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