The Mousetrap set to be the West End’s first play to reopen
The long-running Agatha Christie mystery plans to open 23 October.
UPDATE: Performances of The Mousetrap are now postponed. For more information, read here.
The world's longest-running theatrical production, The Mousetrap, is planning to reopen in the West End on 23 October, in time for its 68th anniversary.
The planned reopening assumes that phase four of the UK Government's roadmap is in place by October. This phase allows indoor performances with a limited audience. The Mousetrap plans to comply by enforcing one-metre social distancing for the audience, including removing alternate rows of seats which will reduce the theatre's capacity to 200 seats.
Onstage, actors will also maintain social distancing with the limited onstage touching removed. Additional measures would be made to make the building "Covid-proof".
Written by Agatha Christie, The Mousetrap opened in London at the Ambassadors Theatre in November 1952 with a cast featuring Sir Richard Attenborough and Sheila Sim. The show moved next door to the St. Martin's Theatre in 1974, where it ran continually up until the Covid shutdown in March 2020.
In the play, seven strangers are trapped at Monkswell Manor during a blizzard when a detective arrives to reveal there is a murderer in their midst. As the guests and their many secrets are unravelled, the identity of the killer and their disturbing motives are revealed - and the play's audience sworn to keep the secret.
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