Liquid sunshine

Agatha Christie's mystery play "The Mousetrap" has been running nonstop in London's West End for six decades! To commemorate that milestone, licenced productions of the whodunit are being staged in 60 countries. The M. clan and I saw a matinee of the All-Australian version at the Sydney Theatre Company and agreed it was a very civilised way to spend an afternoon...except for the cold-blooded murder, obviously. I'm not going to spoil anything about the plot - indeed, there was a post-performance plea from the cast not to discuss it - and will simply furnish you with the premise: a killer is on the loose and an assortment of strangers at a snowed-in country guesthouse become convinced that one of them is the guilty party. "The Mousetrap" begins slow by modern standards, with the set initially the most interesting aspect (I could live in it if the fireplace was real), and there's the occasional non-PC remark representative of the era when Christie was writing. However, by the time you reach the intermission, you understand why the play has endured for 60 years - everyone's a suspect, the tension is breathtaking and there's no telling where it will end up. No telling at all :-)