LAHORE – Dramaline, the dramatics society of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), staged its annual play ‘The Mousetrap’ by Agatha Christie from April 8-10 at the Ali Auditorium. Students from different colleges and schools and families came to the see the play. The play management did a fairly good job in entertaining their guests and the auditorium’s ambience too was delicately constructed with techno and trance music.
As the curtain opens, the stage depicts a guesthouse named ‘Monkswell Manor’, owned by a newly married couple Mr & Mrs Ralston (played by Daniyal and Anum). The couple is awaiting guests – the colourful Mr Wren (Zain), the irritable Mrs Boyle (Sana), the retired Major Metcalf (Saad) and the sarcastic Miss Casewell (Ayesha) and an unexpected shady visitor, Mr Paravicini (Asser).
As the play progresses, with radio providing constant reminders of a crime that took place in the neighbourhood of the guest house, the situation gets more spooky when Sergeant Trotter (Yasin) arrives. He unveils the danger that is faced by two of the seven people residing at the manor, as per the nursery rhyme ‘Three Blind Mice’. A murderer is on the loose and lives are in danger. The communication with the outside world is cut down owing to bad weather.
Everyone is tense over the murderer’s presence and the situation intensifies when Mrs Boyles is murdered in the guesthouse. Tensions start piling up and suspicion falls on every character. The audience experiences a mixture of astonishment and sorrow when the murderer’s identity is revealed in the end. It is Sergeant Trotter and Miss Casewell, who are involved in the murders and kill in order to avenge the death of their sibling.
The mystery was nicely staged by the play director, Asser Malik, and the assistant director, Mariya Dada, who kept the audience captivated throughout. The audience enjoyed this English murder mystery and even tried to solve it before the play ended. The play managed to keep the audience’s analytical mode on until the end.
