by Helen Musa
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| Geraldine Turner as “The Mousetrap’s” Mrs Boyle… “a great character to play, she’s so unlike me, an upper-class British woman.” Photo: Brian Geach |
WHEN musical theatre star Geraldine Turner appears at The Playhouse in the 70th anniversary production of Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap”, her character’s reputation as “the seriously unpleasant retired magistrate, Mrs Boyle” will precede her.
“I would rather describe her as ‘misunderstood’,” Turner tells me, leaping to Mrs Boyle’s defence by phone from His Majesty’s Theatre in Perth, where they’re on tour.
“Yes, she complains a lot about things in Monkswell Manor, but she’s right… everything is relative,” Turner says.
“The Mousetrap” is the longest-running play in the world, with its 28,915th performance having taken place in November 2022. It’s also the longest-running West End show and a “must” on the calendar of tourists to London, seen by nearly 10 million people there.
The show, in which the audience is asked not to reveal “whodunnit” after leaving the theatre, was once confined to London, but in recent years the play’s performing rights have been released and it has been seen in amateur and professional productions in Canberra.
When I’m talking to Turner, they’ve already played in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne – and everywhere it’s been has been packed out.
After Canberra it will return to Brisbane, then finish up at the Riverside Theatre in Parramatta in June.
Turner is naturally keen to defend not just Mrs Boyle but the work itself, which was deplored by the “Manchester Guardian” critic when it first came out in 1952 for characters said to be “built entirely of clichés”.
She strongly disputes this view, saying: “Mrs Boyle is a great character to play, she’s so unlike me, an upper-class British woman.”
It’s no secret that her character gets bumped off at the end of Act I, so Turner sits in the wings for a while and does “a bit of reading”.
When I suggest that the play’s not a patch on Christie’s “And Then There Were None”, she retorts: “Yes, of course there are clichés, with all the characters snowed-in, but what you don’t expect is how funny it is. It’s not just a whodunnit, it’s a comedy as well, and it adds up to a fantastic night of theatre.
“When I was offered the role, I did it because I needed a job after covid… I started to read it thinking it would be just one of those old-fashioned plays, but in fact it leapt off the page, a much better play than I thought.
“You don’t feel it as a hoary, old piece, but it does depend on an ensemble of actors working together.”
This commercial version produced by John Frost, for Crossroads Live Australia, is directed by eminent Australian actor-director Robyn Nevin and has been billed as a night of star performers, so it’s odd that in the publicity, she is billed as “Geraldine Turner (‘Present Laughter’, ‘Don’s Party’)” since she’s much better known for her star roles in musicals such as “Chicago” and “Anything Goes”.
Hers has been a huge career, chronicled in the memoir she wrote during covid, “Turner’s Turn: A disarmingly honest memoir”, of which she says, “I’m really proud of it. I’m an author… It’s good to hold a book you’ve written.”
You’d think she’s enjoyed her fair share of the limelight, so Turner surprises me when she says of her present gig, “I’ve never been in such a hit in my life. It’s just sold out everywhere.
“It’s weird, there are many people in the audience who are over 60, but it’s just as true that a lot of young people come to see it – people simply like Agatha Christie.”
Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap,” The Playhouse, May 11- 21.
First published at city news.com.au May 3, 2023
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