Chapter-1
Introduction
Agatha Christie is reputably known throughout the world as the ‘Queen of Crime’. The Guinness Book of Records cites her as the second best-selling author of all time after William Shakespeare. She also has the honour of being the most widely translated author of all time after William Shakespeare. In 1952, her play The Mousetrap was debuted at the ambassador’s Theatre in London, and has been performed without a break ever since.
The Mousetrap was initially performed as a radio play in 1952 and was broadcast by the BBC with the title Three Blind Mice. The radio play had been commissioned in 1947 by Queen Mary, who was a Christie fan. The forty-five minute play was based on a short story on which Christie had been working; however, audience reaction was so positive that Christie went back to work on the script, elaborating on it, and with its first performance on …show more content…
The play opened in London in 1952 and has been running ever since. At the end of each performance an actor asks the audience not to reveal the identity of the murderer to people who have not seen the play but in 2010 Wikipedia published an article revealing the murderer.
There are advantages of both knowing and not knowing the ending. In the Mousetrap for instance if you know the ending you can appreciate to unravel the suspenseful story and still have a thrilling and enjoyable time. If you don’t know the ending you can enjoy the fun of guessing who it is and excitement that comes with figuring it out.
The entire play reeks of suspicion from the very first scene and audience will find it hard to remain rational when their minds are submerged in doubt. This suspicion however is quite accurate because the characters we meet as the story unfolds are nothing short of strange- infact these feelings of peculiarity and mistrust are a core part of Christie’s
Introduction
Agatha Christie is reputably known throughout the world as the ‘Queen of Crime’. The Guinness Book of Records cites her as the second best-selling author of all time after William Shakespeare. She also has the honour of being the most widely translated author of all time after William Shakespeare. In 1952, her play The Mousetrap was debuted at the ambassador’s Theatre in London, and has been performed without a break ever since.
The Mousetrap was initially performed as a radio play in 1952 and was broadcast by the BBC with the title Three Blind Mice. The radio play had been commissioned in 1947 by Queen Mary, who was a Christie fan. The forty-five minute play was based on a short story on which Christie had been working; however, audience reaction was so positive that Christie went back to work on the script, elaborating on it, and with its first performance on …show more content…
The play opened in London in 1952 and has been running ever since. At the end of each performance an actor asks the audience not to reveal the identity of the murderer to people who have not seen the play but in 2010 Wikipedia published an article revealing the murderer.
There are advantages of both knowing and not knowing the ending. In the Mousetrap for instance if you know the ending you can appreciate to unravel the suspenseful story and still have a thrilling and enjoyable time. If you don’t know the ending you can enjoy the fun of guessing who it is and excitement that comes with figuring it out.
The entire play reeks of suspicion from the very first scene and audience will find it hard to remain rational when their minds are submerged in doubt. This suspicion however is quite accurate because the characters we meet as the story unfolds are nothing short of strange- infact these feelings of peculiarity and mistrust are a core part of Christie’s