The acting in Upstage Artists’ Agatha Christie mystery The Mousetrap is on target. Ayika Tshimanga, Sofia Sandoval, Zac Coates, James-Curtis Brown, and DMV acting newcomer KMG Bey Abdelrahimel worked hard on their British accents and maintained them throughout the play. Veteran actor Marc Rehr maintained a fine European accent of unknown origin.
More than accents, the actors demonstrated comic timing, luring drama, and secrecy, while moving the well-known tale from scene to scene and keeping viewers entertained.
The play is your regular “whodunit” mystery. Eight people are snowed in at a guest house: Mollie (Tshimanga) and Giles Ralston (Christopher Ferrar), the owners; four invited guests, each with eccentric characteristics; an unexpected guest, who arrives out of the blue after his car overturns the snowstorm; and finally a skiing detective. Once everyone has arrived, it is not long before a murder happens, and the detective interrogates the guests. Each avoids the truth, some by silence and others by lies.
The characters are, despite their affected behavior, vivid, and they interact with morbid amusement. Four core performances come from Tshimanga, Coates, Bowers, and Abdelrahimel, who anchor the show in actual behavior and insecurity to allow the plot to move forward.
Tshimanga’s Mollie is a soft-hearted touch, a trusting emotional roller-coaster hiding a truth from herself and all around her. Brown renamed himself Christopher Wren in order to stop children from making fun of him. He is quick with a joke but emotionally scared. Wren also thinks everyone is out to get him, and he might be right. Finally, Abdelrahimel steals a few scenes as the critical, curmudgeonly Mrs. Boyle.
Coates is new to the stage, but Director Michael Safko worked with him to bring life to Det. Sgt. Trotter. Trotter adds a thought-provoking “trust no one” psychodrama twist to the plot that brings the audience to a logical finale, assuming Christie ever wrote one. Rehr’s Mr. Paravicini has already hinted about how little Mollie knows about her guests and suggested in the future she do more thorough background checks. “After all, any one of them, or even I, could be a murderer.”
Safko’s tried-and-true direction of The Mousetrap kept its characters as close to their world-famous contemporaries as possible.
The set is a low-budget affair. It features a large room with a fireplace with an all-important radio on the mantle, a chair characters clash over, and a couch with tables at the head and foot. The table center right has a telephone on it. Upstage establishes a curtain with door cutouts on either side of the center, and an exit back left. Stage Manager Rick Bergmann did the best with what he had. However, a black floor-length curtain behind each door would have helped.
The stage, in the basement of a church, is intimate, as the front-row seats are practically on stage.
Running Time: Two hours with a 15-minute intermission.
The Mousetrap plays through November 10, 2024, presented by UpStage Artists performing at Emmanuel United Methodist Church, 11416 Cedar Lane, Beltsville, MD. Purchase tickets ($10) online.
COVID Safety: Masks are recommended, not mandatory.
The Mousetrap
By Agatha Christie
Directed by Michael Safko
CAST
Christopher Farrar as Giles Ralston
Ayika Tshimanga as Mollie Ralston
James-Curtis Bowers as Christopher Wren
KMG Bey Abdelrahimel as Mrs. Boyle
Peter Rouleau as Major Metcalf
Sofia Sandoval as Miss Casewell
Marc Rehr as Mr. Paravicini
Zac Coates as Det. Sgt. Trotter
