In 1997, 11 year old schoolboy Alasdair Buchan produced his own abridged version of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap at his school in Windsor.
A few weeks after the one-night-only production, and despite the show being an amateur cast of 11 year old boys, the school’s headmaster was surprised to receive a legal “cease and desist”, threatening legal action if the play was produced again!
Fast-forward 27 years, and Alasdair Buchan is now a 37 year old actor, and about to join the real West End cast of The Mousetrap at the St Martin’s Theatre in London, the world’s longest-running play.
Playing the role of Mr Paravicini, the mysterious foreign stranger, Buchan will star in the show for the next six months in London. The other members of the new cast of The Mousetrap will be announced soon.
Alasdair told the Observer newspaper that, “Funnily enough, when I read the script through before the audition, I remembered the lines I’d once had. Also, because I’d directed it, whole passages of dialogue came back and I was amazed how much of the structure I still knew.”
Alasdair’s recent credits include Accolade at Theatre Royal Windsor and tour; Barmy Britain; The Da Vinci Code; An Inspector Calls; and Night Must Fall.
The current cast of The Mousetrap, who started in May 2024, include Lucy Doyle (The Play That Goes Wrong) as Mollie Ralston, Daniel Cech-Lucas (Sherlock Holmes: The Final Curtain) as Giles Ralston, Lynton Appleton (Richard II, RSC) as Christopher Wren, Jules Melvin (Witness for the Prosecution) as Mrs Boyle, Ben Onwukwe (The 47th) as Major Metcalf, Elyssia Roe (Romeo and Juliet, Orange Tree) as Miss Casewell, Lorenzo Martelli (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Almeida) as Mr Paravicini, and Sam Stafford (Ready, Steady, Crooks) as Detective Sgt. Trotter. Additional members of the company include Georgina Duncan, Sam Hollis, Georgie Rhys, plus existing company members Clive Marlowe and Ben Riddle, who will understudy various roles.
A new director recently took up the reigns on Agatha Christie’s iconic thriller, with Philip Franks (The Duchess of Malfi, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby), who is also a successful actor and about to star in Oliver! in the West End, having taken over from Ian Talbot.
The Mousetrap holds the record as the longest-running play in the world and is currently booking until 1 March 2025.
Book tickets to The Mousetrap at St Martin’s Theatre London
St Martin's Theatre, London
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