The Mousetrap and Other Plays

The Mousetrap
and Other Plays

Contents

       
And Then There Were None
            
Act One
            
Act Two
            
Act Three

       
Appointment with Death
            
Act One
            
Act Two
            
Act Three

       
The Hollow
            
Act One
            
Act Two
            
Act Three

       
The Mousetrap
            
Act One
            
Act Two

       
Witness for the Prosecution
            
Act One
            
Act Two
            
Act Three

       
Towards Zero
            
Act One
            
Act Two
            
Act Three

       
Verdict
            
Act One
            
Act Two

       
Go Back for Murder
            
Act One
            
Act Two

       
About the Author

       
The Agatha Christie Collection

       
Related Products

       
Copyright

       
About the Publisher

And Then There Were None

Presented by Bertie Meyer at the St. James' Theatre, London, on 17th November 1943, with the following cast of characters:

(
in the order of their appearance
)

The play directed by Irene Hentschel

Décor by Clifford Pember

The scene of the play is the living room of the house on Indian Island, off the coast of Devon

ACT
I

An evening in August

ACT
II

S
CENE
1
 
  The following morning

S
CENE
2
 
  The same day. Afternoon

ACT
III

S
CENE
1
 
  The same day. Evening

S
CENE
2
 
  The following morning

Time: the present

ACT ONE

SCENE
:
The scene is the living room of the house on Indian Island. It is a very modern room, and luxuriously furnished. It is a bright sunlit evening. Nearly the whole of the back of the stage is a window looking directly out to sea. French doors are open in Centre to balcony. It should give the impression of being like the deck of a liner almost overhanging the sea. There is a chair out Right on the balcony, and the main approach to the house is presumed to be up steps on the Left side of the balcony. There are also presumed to be steps on the Right of the balcony, but these are not the direct way up from the landing stage, but are supposed to lead around the house and up behind it, since the house is supposed to be built against the side of a steep hill. The French doors are wide so that a good area of the balcony is shown.

In the Left, near windows, is a door to dining room. Down stage Left is a door communicating with hall. Pull cord below this door.

Up Right is a door to study. Middle stage Right is fireplace. Over it hangs the reproduction of the “Ten Little Indians” nursery rhyme. On the mantelpiece are a group of ten china Indian figures. They are not spaced out, but clustered so that the exact number is not easily seen.

The room is barely furnished with modern furniture. Centre are two sofas with space between. Chair and small table up Left. Club chair with tabouret Right and above it, down Left, where there is also a bookcase. There is a window seat up Right and cocktail cabinet below mantelpiece. Tabouret down Right. Before fireplace is a big white bearskin rug with a bear's head. There is an armchair and tabouret Right Centre. A square ottoman at lower end of fireplace. A settee with table Left of it in front of window Right at back.

When Curtain rises,
ROGERS
is busy putting final touches to room. He is setting out bottles down Right. 
ROGERS 
is a competent middle-aged manservant. Not a butler, but a house-parlourman. Quick and deft. Just a trifle specious and shifty. There is a noise of seagulls. Motorboat horn heard off.
MRS. ROGERS
enters from dining room up Left. She is a thin, worried, frightened-looking woman. Enter 
NARRACOTT 
at Centre from Left. He carries a market basket filled with packages.

NARRACOTT
. First lot to be arriving in Jim's boat. Another lot not far behind. (
Crosses Left to her.
)

MRS. ROGERS
. Good evening, Fred.

NARRACOTT
. Good evening, Mrs. Rogers.

MRS. ROGERS
. Is that the boat?

NARRACOTT
. Yes.

MRS. ROGERS
. Oh, dear, already? Have you remembered everything?

NARRACOTT
. (
Giving her basket
) I think so. Lemons. Slip soles. Cream. Eggs, tomatoes and butter. That's all, wasn't it?

MRS. ROGERS
. That's right. So much to do I don't know where to start. No maids till the morning, and all these guests arriving today.

ROGERS
. (
At mantel
) Calm down, Ethel, everything's shipshape now. Looks nice, don't it, Fred?

NARRACOTT
. Looks neat enough for me. Kind of bare, but rich folks like places bare, it seems.

MRS. ROGERS
. Rich folks is queer.

NARRACOTT
. And he was a queer sort of gentleman as built this place. Spent a wicked lot of money on it he did, and then gets tired of it and puts the whole thing up for sale.

MRS. ROGERS
. Beats me why the Owens wanted to buy it, living on an island.

ROGERS
. Oh, come off it, Ethel, and take all that stuff out into the kitchen. They'll be here any minute now.

MRS. ROGERS
. Making that steep climb an excuse for a drink, I suppose. Like some others I know.

(
Motorboat horn heard off.
)

NARRACOTT
. That be young Jim. I'll be getting along. There's two gentlemen arriving by car, I understand. (
Goes up to balcony.
)

MRS. ROGERS
. (
Calling to him
) I shall want at least five loaves in the morning and eight pints of milk, remember.

NARRACOTT
. Right.

(
MRS. ROGERS
puts basket on floor up Left; exits to hall Left 1.
)

ROGERS
. (
Breaks to Right of window
) Don't forget the oil for the engine, Fred. I ought to charge up tomorrow, or I'll have the lights running down.

NARRACOTT
. (
Going off at Left
) 'Twas held up on railway. It's at the station now. I'll bring it across the first thing tomorrow.

ROGERS
. And give a hand with the luggage, will you?

NARRACOTT
. Right.

MRS. ROGERS
. (
Enters with list
) I forgot to give you the list of guests, Tom.

ROGERS
. Thanks, old girl. (
Looks reflectively at list
) H'mm, doesn't look a very classy lot to me. (
Refers to list
) Miss Claythorne. She'll probably be the secretary.

MRS. ROGERS
. I don't hold much with secretaries. Worse than hospital nurses, and them giving themselves airs and graces and looking down on the servants.

ROGERS
. Oh, stop grousing, Ethel, and cut along to that lovely up-to-date expensive kitchen of yours.

MRS. ROGERS
. (
Picks up basket; going out Left 2
) Too many newfangled gadgets for my fancy!

(
Voices of
VERA
and
LOMBARD
heard outside.
ROGERS
stands at Centre doors ready to receive them. He is now the well-trained, deferential manservant.
VERA
and
LOMBARD
enter from Left on balcony. She is a good-looking girl of twenty-five. He is an attractive, lean man of thirty-four, well-tanned, with a touch of the adventurer about him. He is already a good deal taken with
VERA
.)