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Article: Agatha Christie, master puzzler.(commentary on Christie's writing career)
- Article from:
- Quadrant
- Article date:
- April 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Quadrant Magazine Company, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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ON NOVEMBER 25, 2002, Agatha Christie's play The Mousetrap clocked up fifty years on the London stage. It's been performed there more than twenty thousand times, to audiences adding up to about ten million people, making it the longest-running show in theatre history. A few other long runs ended recently, so even if it comes off tomorrow it'll probably hold that record for longer than most people reading this will be alive.
Nobody's sure why it's lasted so long. Agatha Christie herself thought it might run for eight months. To start with, it didn't do great business. Then things picked up, and as long as people kept coming there was no sense in taking it off. It ...