The Mousetrap to be performed in Mandarin as it celebrates 60th anniversary. #TheMousetrap60
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London Theatre Direct
As Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap at the St Martin’s Theatre celebrates its 60th year on the West End stage, Chinese actors and actresses are to stage The Mousetrap in Mandarin, as part of celebrations of the world’s longest-running play.
The performance of The Mousetrap by Shanghai Modern Theatre will be staged at the St. Martins Theatre next Sunday.
Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen, owner of the St Martin’s Theatre and Mousetrap producer said “This is the first time that The Mousetrap is performed in London not in English. It is exciting to see the same story pleasing audiences in a different language.”
Premiering in London in 1952, The Mousetrap was described as "one of the most skilfully written murder mysteries ever produced" by the New York Times
The Mousetrap centres on a group of people gathered together in a remote part of the countryside, who discover there is a murderer in their midst. The question, of course, is which one of them is the guilty party.
You would think audiences would know whodunnit by now, but more than half a century on and they are still asking!
Agatha Christie's classic thriller The Mousetrap continues on the world's longest run. The show opened at the Ambassadors in 1952, moved next door to its current home in 1974 and recently celebrated its 20,000th performance.
During The Mousetrap's London run, 116 miles of shirts have been ironed and more than 415 tons of ice cream has been consumed by audience members. In this time, cast members have set a number of records: David Raven is noted in the Guinness Book of Records as the Most Durable Actor, an accolade he gained after giving 4575 performances as Major Metcalfe; and Nancy Seabrooke spent a record-breaking 15 years working as an understudy on The Mousetrap.
The Mousetrap was introduced to China three decades ago, and is currently among the most performed in Shanghai. Founded in 1993, the Shanghai Modern Theatre launched The Mousetrap in 2006.