Wednesday, December 4, 2013

December 2013 - The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie


Thank You Ladies

Firstly, my most sincere thanks to you lovely ladies for your incredibly generous gift.  I was really quite overwhelmed at your kindness - especially as I enjoy the group so much!  You are such a nice group that it really is a pleasure to have you here each month.  So, many many thanks, and those of you who walk with me will be dismayed when I tell you that I'll probably put the voucher towards a new camera that I have my eye on .....

However, I would also like to express on the blog how grateful I am to Rina for her help - I do the fun things: the planning, the suggesting, the baking - and she does the more mundane side of the readings! So thank you Rina.  Without your help the group would not be so easy for me to organise.

Thank you too to Dawn, Miriam, Margaret and Rina for their contributions to the nibbles today.  I am delighted that you enjoyed the mulled wine.  For those of you who asked, the recipe was:


  • A couple of bottles of Shiraz and a fair amount of water.
  • A large shake out of a bag of sugar (brown)
  • 3 large cinnamon sticks
  • A generous shake of ground cloves (I would have used whole cloves if I'd not run out - but if you use these don't leave them in for hours as they will otherwise drown all other flavours)
  • A generous length of orange peel.  You could put in a whole orange studded with some cloves.
  • The secret ingredient was a generous splash of a Polish liqueur which was a gift and too sweet for our taste - but you could use anything really!  Brandy is more traditional, but Cherry Brandy or some such liqueur would probably work well too.
Then I just heated it all up to below boiling point, and popped it in the slow cooker for about 1 1/2 hours. Or just leave it on a low light for 30 mins or so and don't allow it to boil.



Goodbye Cathy!

I feel dreadful that I hadn't realised that this would be Cathy's last play reading session.  I knew of course that Cathy was leaving, but had assumed she would still be here in January.  

Cathy - it has been wonderful having you in the group, and we are really going to miss you.  We wish you much happiness in your new home back in the UK, and hope that you will come along if ever your visits back to Brussels happen to coincide with the first Wednesday of the month.


Farewell Cathy!  We wish you much happiness and hope to see you again one day



The Mousetrap

I think you all agreed that it was worth outlining the set, as the play's complicated with lots of entrances and exits.  

Here's a picture of a set to remind us of the comings and goings!



Characters

Lifted from Wikipedia:

  • Mollie Ralston – Proprietor of Monkswell Manor, and wife of Giles.
  • Giles Ralston – Husband of Mollie who runs Monkswell Manor with his wife.
  • Christopher Wren – The first guest to arrive at the hotel, Wren is a hyperactive young man who acts in a very peculiar manner. He admits he is running away from something, but refuses to say what. Wren claims to have been named after the architect of the same name by his parents.
  • Mrs Boyle – A critical older woman who is pleased by nothing she observes.
  • Major Metcalf – Retired from the army, little is known about Major Metcalf.
  • Miss Casewell – A strange, aloof, masculine woman who speaks offhandedly about the horrific experiences of her childhood.
  • Mr Paravicini – A man of unknown provenance, who turns up claiming his car has overturned in a snowdrift. He appears to be affecting a foreign accent and artificially aged with make-up.
  • Detective Sergeant Trotter – The detective role during the play. He arrives in a snow storm and questions the proprietors and guests.

The Wikipedia article states:  Christie was always upset by the plots of her works being revealed in reviews, and in 2010 her grandson Matthew Prichard, who receives the royalties from the play, was "dismayed" to learn from The Independent that the ending to The Mousetrap was revealed online in the play's Wikipedia article.   And it does!

Many Congratulations to Jane, Rina & Margaret who guessed Who Done It!

I think it was a fun play to do at this time of year, although it was slightly longer than I had anticipated!  Given that it is the longest running play of all time, I hope that those of you who had never seen it feel you have partaken of a small piece of history!

FINALLY

Many famous actors have appeared in this play at sometime in their lives.  However, in November 2012 a star-studded cast gave a one-off performance of The Mousetrap to celebrate its 60th anniversary.  

Star-studded: The biggest names in the world of theatre took to the stage last night to celebrate the 60th anniversary of The Mousetrap.
Pictured left to right are Harry Lloyd, Nicholas Farrell, Iain Glen (back) Tamsin Greig, Miranda Hart, Julie Walters, Patrick Stewart and Hugh Bonneville  (The Daily Mail)

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