Mousetrap’ Opens at Fauquier Community Theater

By Connie Lyons

By Connie Lyons

Fauquier Weekend Contributing Writer

An isolated old Victorian house, full of overstuffed heavy furniture, creaking doors and squeaking stairs. A howling blizzard, cutting off supplies of food, coal, and emergency help. A severed telephone line. A gaggle of eccentric house guests, some bizarre, some sinister. And…a murderer on the loose, probably on his way, perhaps already (gasp) in their midst.

What better entertainment for a winter’s evening than Agatha Christie’s celebrated melodrama, “The Mousetrap”?

Fauquier Community Theater has assembled a gifted cast, got them up in heavy, dowdy tweeds and sensible shoes, filled the stage with clunky antique furniture, and created grand entertainment. The show starts Friday, Jan. 30.

The world's longest running play, “The Mousetrap” opened on London's West End on Nov. 25, 1952, starring Sir Richard Attenborough. It is still being performed in London, and any comprehensive visit to the city necessitates a viewing of the play. It has been translated into 20 languages and performed in more than 40 countries.

When the late Queen Mary was approaching her 80th birthday, she was asked by the BBC what she would like to celebrate the event — anything from Shakespeare to opera. Queen Mary said she would like 'an Agatha Christie play,' and Mrs. Christie obligingly wrote a 30-radio production called "Three Blind Mice" which eventually became "The Mousetrap."

The production celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2002 with a special gala performance attended by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. Audiences can now watch "The Mousetrap" at its new home at St. Martins Theatre.

The play made additional theatrical history by having an original "cast member" survive all the cast changes since its opening night: to this day the late Deryck Guyler can still be heard, via a recording, reading the radio news bulletin in the play.

Christie has filled the play with red herrings, and the audience is cautioned not to reveal the tricky ending.

The plot unfolds as a young couple, Mollie and Giles Ralston, have started up a guest house. They and four guests are snowed in, along with an unexpected traveler, who has overturned his car in a snowdrift.

Among the guests, there is a flamboyant young architect, a sharp-tongued dowager, a fashionably dressed jetsetter, a retired army officer, and an eccentric European expatriate.

Detective Sgt. Trotter arrives on skis to inform the group that he believes a murderer is on his way to the hotel. He, or she, has already claimed one victim.

It becomes ominously and increasingly apparent that the killer could be any one of the guests, or even the hosts themselves: no one is what he or she seems, and everyone seems to be hiding something.

“It’s a totally character- and plot-driven play,” said director Andrea Kough. “It’s very much an ensemble piece. The characters are terrific creations, and I’m blessed with a phenomenal cast that excels at fleshing them out.”

Kough, who grew up in Minnesota, has been involved in theater as long as she can remember, acting in shows in Florida, Los Angeles, and Virginia. “The Mousetrap” marks her directorial debut.

Blake Wood plays Trotter with consummate assurance: he braves the storm on skis and quickly marshals the flustered and quarrelsome guests into uneasy, querulous submission. A graduate of George Mason University with a degree in communications, Wood made his acting debut in a duel role in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” and was hooked.

A FCT regular, he has had leading roles in “The Crucible,” “A Christmas Story,” “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” “Arsenic and Old Lace,” and “The Sound of Music.”

Like Kough, Wood emphasizes the primacy of the ensemble cast.

“Everyone plays off everyone else, and we all make use of the group dynamic,” he said. “My own character, Trotter, is very bold and confident. He’s not afraid to use people to trick people and lie to them. He has to protect people and interrogate them at the same time, so it’s a balancing act.”

Molly Ralston, owner of the guest house, is played by Heather Plank. A Sweet Briar graduate with a double major in theater and philosophy, Plank has acted in many area productions, including several with Rooftop Theater and Upstart Crow in Manassas. This is her first performance with FCT.

“The person originally cast had to drop out, and the director contacted me and asked if I could do it,” she said. “The play is so intensely English, it feels like a classic. It’s full of stock characters: the naive ingenue, the hearty retired major, the eccentric artist. It’s the cast’s task to fill them out into real flesh and blood people.”

Patrick Burton plays Molly’s husband Giles Ralston with alternating irritation and anxiety.

Kathryn Kent Hutchins postures elegantly as the sophisticated and cynical Miss Casewell and Joe Bersack is bluff and determinedly cheerful as Major Metcalf.

Carolyn Cameron plays Mrs. Boyle, the most disagreeable of the guests; she complains endlessly, stomping around the stage and throwing herself into handy armchairs in an endless fit of pique.

Bill Kitzerow is by turns oily, charming and sinister as the eccentric European expatriate Mr. Paravacini, and Richard Isaacs, alternately giggling, fearful and flamboyant, turns in a high-camp performance as the aspiring architect Christopher Wren.

“The Mousetrap” will be performed on weekends at 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, Jan. 30-31, Feb. 6-7 and Feb 13-14. Sunday matinees are 2 p.m. Feb. 1, Feb. 8 and Feb. 15. Performances are at The Theatre at Vint Hill, 4225 Aiken Drive, Vint Hill Farms Station, Warrenton.

Tickets are $14 for adults, $12 for students and seniors. Tickets are available at the door but advance purchase is advisable; credit card reservations may be placed by calling (540) 349-8760 or online at www.fctstage.org.