Review: Hiirenloukku
Agatha Christie’s legendary Mousetrap is finally in Helsinki!
Agatha Christie’s Mousetrap has arrived at the Helsinki City Theatre’s Arena stage in Hakaniemi!
Originally written as a radio play, the play has been running in London continuously since 1952, with the exception of the coronavirus break, and it has been performed in the West End almost a staggering 30,000 times.
Even though I’ve been interested in The Mousetrap during my trips to London, musicals have won the day. Now that the play was finally served in Helsinki, performed in Finnish, I definitely wanted to see it.
The story is a very classic Christie mystery: a group of people unknown to each other are stuck in an inn surrounded by a snowstorm. On the radio, it is reported that a murder has taken place in London, and the perpetrator has not been caught. In the middle of a snowstorm, a police officer arrives and warns that there are strong reasons to suspect that one of the inn’s residents is in danger of becoming the murderer’s next victim. Since the house is isolated from the rest of the world, the murderer must be one of the people in the house.
The characters are each a bit suspicious in their own way, and they all seem to be hiding some secret. The couple who owns the inn, Mollie and Giles (Elina Keinonen and Severi Saarinen), seem to have a clean slate, at least at first.
Young Christopher (Sauli Suonpää), on the other hand, feels strange right from the first meeting. The curious Major Metcalf (Risto Kaskilahti) and Mrs. Boyle (Helena Haaranen), who squats the hotel owners, are the next guests at the inn. Miss Leslie Casewell (Sanna-June Hyde) and the slick Mr. Paravicini (Santeri Kinnunen) also arrive as customers, they are also very suspicious characters.
When a London police officer Trotter (Joel Hirvonen) finds his way through a snowstorm, the gang is together. Then we just wait to see if someone gets out of their life and follow the development of the relationships between the people stuck in the inn. I don’t want to reveal more about the plot, and of course it’s not appropriate to tell the ending.
The play is small-scale, and the story takes place in one room without changing sets. It is perfect for the intimate Arena stage. The visuals and soundscape are from the 1950s. By the way, it’s funny that the performance is in the same theatre and partly with the same actors as the farce The Play That Goes Wrong, which is very reminiscent of Mousetrap.
The story is far from the best Christie I’ve seen (on TV), and I can’t explain why this particular work has become a big favourite in London decade after decade. In retrospect, there are gaps and coincidences in the plot that are not explained. However, it is tightly gripping, entertaining, funny and, of course, exciting. And it was fun to finally see this legendary play!
After seeing this, however, I would recommend travelers to London to watch Mousetrap in Helsinki and head to a musical in the West End.