The Mousetrap, apart from being a pretty fine example of Agatha Christie’s genius, is also her most enduring success story. Sixty three years and over 26,000 shows later, it has achieved an assured cult status, a kind of tourist attraction as well as a theatrical experience. And as far as theatrical experiences go, Amir Raza Husain’s spectacular productions have made their mark too. The play and the theatre veteran came together over three decades ago, with a production of “The Mousetrap” that drew both praise and favourable comparisons. Now, all set to stage “The Mousetrap” (presented by Aircel) again, Husain talks about discovering, and performing Christie’s most famous work.
Excerpts from an interview:
What is it about “The Mousetrap” that has clicked, and kept it alive for 63 years?
The first and only time I saw ‘The Mousetrap’ was when I was 16 years old which means it is about forty odd years after now. Back then, all I could afford was the balcony ticket. I thought, you know what let’s see what the fuss is about. Even back then it was the longest running play — 25. I saw it, but I couldn’t figure it out. So when I came back, a few years later I talked to my director Marcus Murch and said, you know what, I haven’t figured this play out, but it seems to have a life of its own; maybe you should read it. So he read it and he found it interesting. The thing is Agatha Christie has some superb plays and some indifferent ones. “Witness for the Prosecution”, which I have also done, “And Then There Were None”, these are her superb plays. We found those far more exciting as plays and books. But we thought that we should do a few readings of ‘The Mousetrap’ anyway, and when we did, we found that the cast really enjoyed it. So then we said let’s try open to the public. And people loved it more than the other Christie plays we had done.
There’s something about the play. Now of course it’s got a life of its own, a cult status, like “Cats”, and “The Phantom of the Opera”. A play for the first 15 years runs because it’s good. Then market forces take over.
It took us time to discover what was special about the play. We realised that there are various reasons for its popularity. The characters, like all of Christie’s, are a little tweaked, a little exaggerated and they have to be played like that. A few people manage to do that. There have been American productions, all of them have been disasters. They haven’t discovered what the dame meant. There is a magic about each character that she created. The magic grows with the interplay of the characters. By the end of it, it becomes a completely magical experience. It was a gem, a masterpiece.
We discovered this while we were actually doing the play. There are plays that are far more spectacular, with death traps and murders and twists and turns, but this as a wholesome family show which keeps you at the edge of you seat and gives you a dollop of humour is something else.
And what prompted you to revive the play now?
Having done it 30-35 years ago, I thought it was time to revive ‘The Mousetrap’ primarily because my interest was redrawn to it by the death of Sir Richard Attenborough. He played the lead for the first time. I was reading about him and I discovered his association with the play. I thought, why not go back to ‘The Mousetrap’?
It’s been a long time. When you approach it now, what’s different?
The play doesn’t change, the characters don’t change. What changes is the technology. So for example, in the play at one point everybody says it’s snowing outside. When we first did it, we would have two guys on two sides, throwing thermocol or cotton balls. Sometimes it would miss and it would come inside the set but what could you do? Now you have snow machines. You show its snowing. It’s a little noisy but it’s there. Other things, like the sound, the lighting, they change with changing technology too.
The thing with live performances is that what happens is that in a live production you can’t tell until it is performed to an audience. And that’s when you get everything. Before the performance you are reacting with each other in a rehearsal space, but when you start reacting with each other in front of 500 people, its completely different. Every show is exciting because sometimes some actor will suddenly nuance something differently. Which normally they should check with me but sometimes they do it on the spot. And of course I’m listening to the show, on or off stage, and if we like it we keep it. So it builds, and grows.
How has the casting been for this particular production?
Usually, when people who come to us have acted before, we are a little nervous about casting them because we have to make them unlearn what they have done. They have got into a groove. You have to break the groove of the way they talk, the way they move, everything. But if I get a person who has not acted, you start fresh. The latter is much easier.
This casting has been superb, for some reason we have got all actors, some who have been with us on and off for 30-35 years. In the middle they’ve gotten into cinema, some have been posted out of Delhi for five years and comes back, or they just have been busy. But the entire cast is someone who has worked with us, and two of them who have trained under the same director as me. It’s been a very painless kind of rehearsal. When you have actors like this you tell them what you want and they give it to you.
Have you edited the script at all?
Yes. You see, times have changed. The first time we did ‘Legend of Ram’, in 1994, the response was phenomenal, and even after a few years, in 2004, people loved it, but then, they also came to us and said that the script is a little long. There had been a change of time. So now when we revisited Christie we chopped. It’s a long period play. The editing has not taken away anything, just made it crisper. Times have changed, if we were to do it the way we did it thirty years ago it wouldn’t work. Times have changed, people have changed and as performers we’ve also changed.
And do you think the changing times also signals more problems for productions like “The Legend of Ram”— the scale, the subject, the finances?
There is space, you get the permissions, after a bit of persistence. The problem is the money. Government support you get it, it’s usually always forthcoming, and in my experience without a bribe. We have a policy of no bribe, we have suffered a lot but we don’t give bribes. What we do need is money. We need large amounts of money which will not come if somebody likes my face, it’ll come when the economy is buoyant. And in an economy that is not buoyant, theatre is the last priority. If you have money in your advertising marketing budget, it goes into television. It used to go towards cinema, but basically television. In cities with hoardings, they go to hoardings. We are corporate social responsibility. Whenever budget has to be slashed we are the first guys to go. That’s the first thing that’s killing theatre. The other is the newspapers. It’s too expensive to advertise in most papers today. Even after they give me a great cut, but I can’t afford to advertise. If I’m to do three shows of a play at the Kamani, have average seat of 1000 rupees and I go houseful, that money I get, 10-15 lakhs, will not be enough to cover advertising. Forget everything else, the production cost etc. Just advertising will not be covered even if I run houseful for three shows. You need huge amounts of support. And some newspapers today can’t differentiate advertisements of water filters and a play. These kinds of rate a cinema can afford, but I can’t afford it. Now the government has put 14 percent service tax on theatre. Till date we have been exempt. With the new government, we thought the economy would boom, but now we realise that two three guys are making money, and there is more of what Arvind Kejriwal calls crony capitalism. And in crony capitalism there is no space for theatre.
But then you have companies like Aircel…
Yes. In this background you have a company like Aircel. We’ve been associated with Aircel for seven years. But there are very few companies like this. We need many more. The advantage with Aircel is also a guy like their boss, he can tell quality. So it makes it easier for us.
Amidst this, one often hears of how amateur theatre is thriving.
Thriving is the wrong word! How is it thriving? Amateur theatre is not thriving, how is it thriving. Thriving is growth, growth is energy, forget the numbers. The point is, they are mushrooming all over, but they are giving no benefit no quality and no growth. You see the thing is, you will start a theatre group today and you will get funded by your parents’ friends. You collect a lakh of rupees, keep 10,000 for yourself and the rest will go in the cost of the production. You are a college student and this seems like a great thing for you to do. You will do it one, two, three times, and after that, the parents and your friends will dry up. But while you were doing it, lot of people will come in, to watch you. But you are not creating a market for theatre. What you are doing it is ruining my market. Now if there is someone who has come to watch a play for the first time and they come to you, they come away leaving I should have known, theatre is for intellectual people, why have I come to this? And next time I do a show, she will say English theatre is not something I want to see. So this is what is happening.
Venue: ITC Maurya
Date and Time:
28th March- 8 pm
Sunday- 29th March- 4 pm .
Sunday- 8 pm
