MANIPAL: AAINA Dramatics, the theatre club of Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT) staged the adaptation of a gripping murder mystery play titled ‘The Mousetrap’ on November 1at Syndicate Golden Jubilee Hall. The play was a classic English crime drama. ‘The Mousetrap’ is a play originally written by famous mystery writer Agatha Christie.
Even though the play kicked off an hour later than the stated time, the enthusiasm of the audience was maintained as they patiently waited to watch it. The set and the ambience of the stage took them back to 1950s, in the hall of an English hotel called Monkswell Manor where the murder mystery develops.
The plot of the play is that Mrs. Lyon was murdered in London and a murderer has packed his bags for Monkswell Manor to avenge a terrible childhood trauma. The story develops when Mr. and Mrs. Ralston welcome five strange guests into their hotel, Monkswell Manor. Stuck in the hotel, cut off from the world in the cold winter, all of them are suspicious of one another. The killer could be anyone of these guests and the others, his victim. Detective Sergeant Trotter is the official sent to investigate the matter.
Thereafter, the play begins to unfold as everyone is under suspicion. The characters start to unveil and layers begin to peel.
The climax and the ambience created has left everyone surprised. “Manipal receives thriller plays very well, so we decided to stage ‘The Mousetrap’ and set this all up in a mere 15-20 days. We modified the characters as per our need and the audience. Every year we fill halls to the brim and I am glad this year was no different,” revealed the director of the play, Khushveer Singh. The played served as more than a form of art and entertainment as the profits collected from the play were donated to the orphanage, Sri Krishna Balniketan in Udupi.
The play was crafted to keep the audience engaged. The characters were introduced one by one. All characters had the a story of their own which induced a depth to each of them. “I love thrillers and this play was out of the box with an unpredictable climax. I really loved it. I’ve seen three AAINA plays and this one was by far the best,” said Madu Bhardawaj, a second year student Electrical engineering in MIT.