In 1997, at the initiative of producer Stephen Waley-Cohen, the theatrical education charity Mousetrap Theatre Projects was launched, helping young people experience London's theatre. The play's longevity has ensured its popularity with tourists from around the world. The play is actually The Murder of Gonzago, but Hamlet answers metaphorically, since 'the play's the thing' in which he intends to 'catch the conscience of the king.' Three Blind Mice or its tune is heard a few times during the play. In Shakespeare's play Hamlet, 'The Mousetrap' is Hamlet's answer to Claudius's inquiry about the name of the play whose prologue and first scene the court has just observed (III, ii). The suggestion to call it The Mousetrap came from Christie's son-in-law, Anthony Hicks. The play had to be renamed at the insistence of Emile Littler who had produced a play called Three Blind Mice in the West End before the Second World War. In the United Kingdom, only one production of the play in addition to the West End production can be performed annually, and under the contract terms of the play, no film adaptation can be produced until the West End production has been closed for at least six months. When she wrote the play, Christie gave the rights to her grandson Mathew Prichard as a birthday present. The short story has still not been published within the United Kingdom but it has appeared in the United States in the 1950 collection Three Blind Mice and Other Stories. The play is based on a short story, itself based on the radio play, but Christie asked that the story not be published as long as it ran as a play in the West End of London. The story drew from the real-life case of Dennis O'Neill, who died after he and his brother Terence suffered extreme abuse while in the foster care of a Shropshire farmer and his wife in 1945. It was broadcast on under the name Three Blind Mice starring Barry Morse. The play began life as a short radio play written as a birthday present for Queen Mary, the consort of King George V.

4 Twist ending and tradition of secrecy.

Mousetrap agatha christie