Beat the heat and enjoy an evening of superb community theater: see Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap at the Greenbelt Arts Center. Award-winning director Rick Starkweather (Thunderous Productions) has assembled a top notch cast to tease the audience with arguably Christie’s most iconic locked-room murder mystery puzzle. The Mousetrap is the longest continuously running play in theater history, with over 30,000 performances since its 1952 opening in London. It’s been claimed that Christie has sold more books than anyone else. In Act I, a bevy of guests is marooned by a severe snowstorm at Mollie and Giles Ralston’s newly opened Monkswell Manor Guest House. The personalities are fleshed out, their frictions made apparent, one of them is murdered. Enter Detective Sergeant Trotter (Jeff Robert) to solve the mystery. In Act II, with increasing intensity and confidence, Trotter grills the six remaining guests. He catches them all in lies or inconsistencies and reminds them ominously, “you all had opportunity….” It’s easy for the audience to be convinced that each of the suspects is guilty as Trotter interrogates each relentlessly. So whodunnit? Giles Ralston (Dash Samari) has lied to his wife Mollie (Devonna Burrowes, who is also the producer), who in turn has lied to Giles. Christopher Wren (Daniel Dausman) has created a false identity. Major Metcalf (John Marget) defiantly doth protest too much. Miss Marley (Leilani Cartledge) is the mysterious Jamaican uninvited guest – the demonized immigrant Other. The touchy Miss Casewell (Jessica Adcock) carries selfincriminating baggage. All these actors and their nemesis Trotter give accomplished, smooth performances. Does Trotter get his man? Or woman? Fiendishly clever Christie ratchets up the suspense until the very end when the killer’s identity and motive are revealed. See The Mousetrap on Friday and Saturday, July 26 and 27 at 8 p.m., and on Sunday, July 28 at 2 p.m.
Agatha Christie’s Whodunnit At the Greenbelt Arts Center
Devonna Burrowed as Mollie Ralston.