By MICHAEL-SHAWN DUGAR
This weekend, the Pullman Civic Theatre is aiming to lure audiences to its performance of a classic murder mystery, Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap.”
This will be the second weekend PCT is performing the play, which has been produced at one theater or another since 1952 and is the longest running play in the history of London’s West End. The show will be at 7:30 tonight through Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday.
The story brings five guests to the home of Mollie and Giles Ralston, who use their Monkswell Manor residence as a hotel in the midst of a snowstorm. They are later joined by Sgt. Trotter, who initially comes to interrogate the guests about a previous murder but is faced with a new objective once one of the manor guests is found dead.
“It’s good entertainment. It’s a throwback,” said director Jeri Harris. “You can just really enjoy the story and we have a fantastic cast and the set is really cool. The entire set is supposed to be their common room in the house and you get the whole feeling that it’s really a room and it’s a lot larger than it really is.”
Harris said she’s a big fan of Christie’s work and particularly this play because of the oddball assortment of characters it features and the way Christie manages to mix comedy into a murder mystery to make it suitable for viewers of all ages.
Because of the play’s plot-twisting ending, it is tradition that the director addresses the audience before each performance and asks that they not reveal the identity of the killer to any outsiders, a ritual Harris plans to continue.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap”
WHERE: Pullman Civic Theatre, 1220, N.W. Nye St., Pullman
WHEN: 7:30 tonight-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday
COST: Tickets are $12, $10 for matinees and can be purchased at pullmancivic theater.org
