Blinn-Bryan theatre opens their new season with the Agatha Christie murder mystery, 'The Moustetrap.'
‘The Mousetrap’ is the longest continuously running play in history.
Blinn College invites audiences to identify the murderer in Monkswell Manor when it opens its 2016-17 Bryan campus theatre season with Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap.”
Having opened in the West End of London in 1952, “The Mousetrap” is the longest continuously running play in history, and celebrated its 25,000th performance in 2012. Per tradition, audiences are asked not to reveal the identity of the killer to anyone outside the theatre, preserving the play’s twist ending for future audiences.
Blinn will present the play Oct. 13-16 in the Blinn-Bryan campus Student Center Theatre. The curtain will rise at 7:30pm Thursday through Saturday, Oct. 13-15, and 2pm on Sunday, Oct. 16.
Tickets are $5 for students and $10 for the general public, while season subscriptions are $12 for students and $20 for the general public. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Tickets can be purchased at www.blinn.edu/vpa/ and will be available at the door. For questions regarding ticket reservations, call (979) 209-8100 or email bryanboxoffice@blinn.edu.
“The Mousetrap” begins with the off-stage murder of a woman named Maureen Lyon before the action shifts to Monkswell Manor, a guesthouse run by Mollie and Giles Ralston. Four scheduled guests arrive for the evening before a fifth, caught in an unexpected snowstorm, arrives unannounced and is offered the final remaining room.
The next morning, Sergeant Trotter arrives and declares that he is investigating Maureen Lyon’s murder and he believes the culprit is somehow connected to the guesthouse. As the day wears on, the characters grow more suspicious of one another – a situation that only grows worse when one of the guests is found murdered.
Christie is the world’s best-selling mystery writer and often is referred to as the “Queen of Crime.” Her novels have sold approximately two billion copies, and according to her estate, her works rank third only behind William Shakespeare and the Bible in terms of the most widely published books in history.
“There’s something unique in Agatha Christie’s mysteries,” says Wise, who will direct the play. “There’s this wonderful, circuitous path that she takes where almost everyone without failure has the right to be guilty, and I think that’s a unique quality. There aren’t good people and bad people – everyone has the potential to be tainted, and I think that’s what makes her plays so special.”
“The Mousetrap” will serve as Blinn-Bryan’s entry into the 2017 Kennedy Center American Theatre Festival, and marks just the beginning of an outstanding schedule for the 2016-17 Blinn-Bryan theatre season, which celebrates women’s voices in theatre.
On Saturday, Nov. 19, and Sunday, Nov. 20, current and former theatre students from Blinn’s Bryan and Brenham campuses will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its Theatre Arts Program with “Glitter and Gold! 50 Years of Theatre” at the Dr. W.W. O’Donnell Performing Arts Center on the Blinn-Brenham campus.
Quiara Alegria Hudes’ Pulitzer Prize-winning “Water by the Spoonful” runs Feb. 16-19 and tells the story of a Marine veteran who bonds with three other individuals in an online support group. “These Shining Lives” by Melanie Marnich runs April 27-30 and is based on the true story of four women who suffered radium poisoning while working in a watch factory in the 1920s.
“It’s a very diverse season with a classic ‘whodunit’ murder mystery, a docudrama based on real events and a modern play about the effects of warfare, addiction and relationships,” Wise said.
