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REVIEW

Northlight catches all the guilty pleasures in The Mousetrap

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
By HEDY WEISS

Jonathan Berry is a hair-raisingly good director (recall Look Back in Anger at Redtwist, Golden Boy at Griffin, Festen at Steep and a slew of other productions). But I doubt I would have pegged him as the ideal person to stage a revival of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, that delicious whodunit of a murder mystery (with surprising psychological undertones) that is renowned as the world’s longest-running show. (The production in London’s West End has been playing for 62 years.)

Happily, Berry caught me in my own trap. His Northlight Theatre production is exceptionally smart, subtly dark and hilariously funny — and so supremely well cast and absolutely airtight in its unspooling that I not only chased the cheese all the way to the end, but heard the perfect little snap that proclaimed “case solved” …

I will say no more about any of this, aside from the fact that Christie wove her very twisted web with masterful skill, and Berry and his actors have embellished it brilliantly. And oh, yes, there is this: The Mousetrap is just tremendous fun.

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REVIEW

Northlight’s Mousetrap is must-see murder and mayhem

EVANSTON REVIEW
By CATEY SULLIVAN

A dead body (or two), a blinding storm and a house full of eccentrics — one of whom is a murderer poised to strike again. It’s a killer combination, and one that plays out with intelligence, wit and terrific suspense in Northlight Theatre’s staging of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap.

You may be tempted to sniff with disdain at the prospect of The Mousetrap. It’s been running for 62 years in London, where it is indeed a bonafide tourist trap. It’s also utterly formulaic: Isolate a group of colorful yet familiar types in an atmospheric old mansion, add in a dead body, and let the audience puzzle over whodunit.

But with Northlight’s production, director Jonathan Berry takes the tropes of the genre and invigorates them into a fresh, exciting thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat from lights up to curtain call.

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REVIEW

Sights + Sounds: The Mousetrap

SHERIDAN ROAD
By BRIAN KIRST

Northlight Theatre has your nontraditional holiday celebrating covered this year. Their truly classy and fun production of Agatha Christie’s classic The Mouse Trap takes place on a wintery, snow swept night. But the chills produced here are, ultimately, not a result of the weather, but of the tense and eventually murderous theatrics.

One of the most popular plays ever produced, Christie’s mystery has run for 62 years on London’s West End. Not surprisingly, the show is full of multiple pleasures. Taking place on the opening day of a fledgling guest house, surprise soon becomes the name of the game. As newlywed owners Mollie and Giles try to cater to the whims of such clients as the youthfully odd Christopher, the charmingly aggressive Miss Casewell and the menacingly displeased Mrs Boyle, danger soon strikes. A handsome detective arrives, just as the entire group is snowed in, with news of a maniac on the loose. Soon, a life is taken and everyone else is either in danger or a possible suspect in the crime.

Nicely, despite a certain sense of formula, Christie creates characters with distinct emotional edges here, giving the audience a relatable stake in the proceedings. Working well within these characteristic layers, director Jonathan Berry eases out stellar performances from his exemplary cast. Berry, also, achieves a sense of warm tension throughout the evening. Thus, his choreography of the murder that ends the first act is simply done yet taut and haunting.

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REVIEW

The Mousetrap at Northlight Theatre/Review

READER RECOMMENDED

CHICAGO READER
By TONY ADLER

Berry and an exquisitely cast bunch of actors walk a line between the script’s vast kitsch potential and Christie’s very real wit to create a lovingly subversive entertainment. Joe Dempsey, Laura T. Fisher, and Lindsey Pearlman, in particular, need to win something for their sly performances as a mysterious Italian, a dour retiree (“A lot of people don’t know they have dry rot”), and a red-lipped Vita Sackville-West type.

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PREVIEW

Northlight Theatre springs into Agatha Christie’s enduring mystery Mousetrap

SUN-TIMES MEDIA
By CATEY SULLIVAN

For Greg Matthew Anderson, Agatha Christie’s murderous thriller The Mousetrap is all about defying expectations.

The mystery is a masterstroke of a whodunit, a tale that laid the groundwork for everything from the “CSI” television series to the board game “Clue.”

As Detective Sergeant Trotter, Anderson is the show’s lynchpin, the catalyst for terror prowling among a deliciously intriguing clutch of suspects stranded one dark and stormy night in an isolated British manor. As a blinding snow and claustrophobic fear set in, Detective Trotter propels the action in a tale of murder, madness and diabolical deceit.

“What’s really fascinating about this play is you start out thinking you know these characters. They all seem like kind of tropes,” Anderson says. “Trotter seems kind of like Hercule Poirot, and you’re like, ‘OK, I know that guy.’ Then Christie begins ripping the rug out. You start to realize that all of these characters — you don’t know who any of them are really. It’s deeply unsettling.”

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PREVIEW

From murder to Madoff, 10 of fall’s best plays in the suburbs

SUN-TIMES MEDIA
By CATEY SULLIVAN

And finally, an oldie but a definite goodie from Northlight. Agatha Christie’s whodunit has been playing in London for an astonishing 62 years. Set in an English country guesthouse, it features a motley assortment of colorful suspects conveniently snowed in and unable to escape as a murderer is loose somewhere on the grounds. Jonathan Berry directs a procedural with a twist ending we wouldn’t dream of disclosing (and that savvy audiences should keep to themselves as well). Read more>

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