Interview
Interview
Meet the woman who guards The Mousetrap’s history
Artistic Director Denise Silvey tells us how she helps keep The Mousetrap alive for audiences over seven decades after it first debuted
One of the first things you’ll see upon at arriving at St Martin’s Theatre in London’s West End is a wooden board displaying a five-digit number. At time of writing, that number is somewhere over 29,600, and changes almost every day – some days, multiple times. It’s a tally of the number of times that The Mousetrap has been performed, a world record that is constantly being reset.
It’s hard to imagine The Mousetrap ever leaving the West End. Agatha Christie’s murder mystery drama is beyond a staple – it’s a landmark, a tourist attraction, a theatre-going tradition passed down through generations. To an outside eye, it almost appears self-sufficient, but The Mousetrap has roles within its artistic team that are completely unique, like that of Artistic Director Denise Silvey. We sat down with Silvey to discuss the enormous responsibility that comes with overseeing casting and direction for The Mousetrap in the West End, and what it takes to protect the legacy of the show.
Could you start off by giving me your full job title?
I’m the Artistic Director of The Mousetrap.
And what responsibilities are covered under that role?
I cast the show. I am Associate Director on it, and on the tour. In general, my job is looking after it and being the talking head for the show.
Is this a job that exists for most productions on the West End?
I don’t think so. There have been three of us doing this job since 1952, which is quite extraordinary. I’ve been in the position since 2009.
And you’ve been in the show yourself.
Yes, from 1994-5, and then 2001-2.
What is it about the show that’s kept you coming back?
It’s like a family. It’s a great big family. You sort of feel safe. I remember when I first was in it, I felt safe in it. You get to know all these people, and everybody that’s been in it, you’re like a little unit. It’s the oddest, oddest thing.
What would a typical day in your job look like?
There isn’t one, really! I cast it twice a year – in fact, at the moment it’s four times a year because we do the tour as well. I put the breakdown out and then I get so many suggestions, and then I go through those and I shortlist them for the director, or for myself if I’m doing it. We meet about 10 or 15 people for each role, so that takes probably three weeks each time. That’s 12 weeks of the year. Then you’ve got to direct the thing as well. I suppose it takes about 18/19 weeks of doing this, and then I come in, and I do I take the understudy runs, which happen about once every two, three weeks. Then I’m generally on hand, if there’s any issues or situations, and I watch the show and make sure it’s okay and they’re not going off piste or anything like that, which sometimes happens over a long run.
Because it’s the production with so much history, is there a specific way that everything needs to be done that you’re watching out for?
No, definitely not. Because when I was in it we all had to do exactly the same as the person before, which was really constricting. As an actress, that was really difficult. So when I took over, I thought, none of this we can’t do this. It was very, very stale. I remember saying at the time, “I don’t know why I’m doing this.” The answer was always, “Because everybody else has.” I wanted to make it different. As long as they go in and out of the right doors at the right time, every actor can bring their own interpretation, and every director can bring their own interpretation. I think it’s benefited from that, because it’s now much livelier and there’s more drama in it. It’s been a really interesting journey to do that. I’m watching each director and they’ve all had very different takes. It’s fascinating.
When you’re watching a new director work on the show, are you ever tempted to jump in if you feel they’re interpreting it incorrectly?
No, I wouldn’t dream of it. But they do ask me. “Is this okay? Is this alright?”
When you’re casting the show, amongst this spread of characters, is there a quality that you tend to look for in in a mousetrap actor?
If they’ve done long runs before, so that we know they don’t mind that. They’re doing nine shows a week, which is a lot. If they’re gonna just start mucking about, and they haven’t got the concentration, that’s tough. A lot of actors like to devise and that’s fine to a certain extent, but you’ve got to think about your fellow actors. It’s having the stamina for it as well, because nine shows is a big ask, which is why we’ve reduced the contract down to six months. It used to be ten.
I like to work with people that have worked a lot in theatre. I’m more interested in that, because those people that haven’t done theatre and they just come in and they’ve done a lot of telly and stuff like that… It’s very different. They’re a different form of actor. The concentration level is very different if they haven’t done theater, but once you do theater, it’s totally different because you’re aware of the audience. You place the audience and you interact more, and you find more of the characters, obviously, they grow and grow. When we direct it, we allow every actor to find their own character, and we let them have their own backstory for their characters. We need actors that understand that.
What is your favourite aspect of your role?
Recently, I’ve got more into directing, and I’m actually really loving that. But I do enjoy the casting hugely. And the whole casting process is fascinating. You know within a few minutes when somebody comes in into the room and you’re having a conversation with them if you really like them, and you’re just willing them to be good enough at the reading as well. Sometimes they are. It’s terribly sad when sometimes they’re not. They’re great to chat to and then you suddenly give them a script, and they’re hopeless.
This obviously isn’t a job where there’s a very straight way into it – you’ve been involved with the show in various capacities over the course of many years.
It was very odd, actually, because the previous producer had mentored me as a producer, because I do that as well. Then I had a phone call out of the blue one day that said, “Would you like to come and take over from me?” That was just the most random call ever.
If someone wanted to have a career similar to yours, what initial steps should they take?
The tricky thing is that this job really doesn’t exist in any other show. But if you think you want to be an associate director or an assistant director, the thing to do is to get attached to a director. Get your CVs out to directors, and build up experience with them so they say, “Okay, I want this person as an assistant director.” When I’m employing directors for things that I’m producing, if somebody says that to me, I say okay, because I know that they’re going to get on and that’s fine.
With big musicals, it’s more if you’ve been a choreographer, you understand the music, you’ve put your time in, you become a resident on that. You need to build yourself up within a show, I think, to prove that you’ve got the stamina to do it. You’ve got that creative ability.
What do you think it is that has made this show stick around for so many years?
I think it’s a great story. It’s got comedy, it’s got drama. There’s nothing that can shock, which is good. I think also, it’s that it’s now self-perpetuating, because you’ve got grandparents bringing their grandchildren to see the show. That’s gone on forever. When I was in it the first time, there was a couple that had flown over from India to see it because they’d seen it when they got engaged, and they’d brought their children from India, on a 40 hour trip, just to come and see it because they wanted the children to see the show that they’d seen. That’s the sort of thing you hear all the time with The Mousetrap. It’s a piece of history and it’s just got this a really good story and there’s a lot of twists and turns and drama, and also you’ve got that secret. You’re sworn to secrecy at the end and nobody tells who the murderer is which is fantastic. You’re in that little group. It really is brilliant.
See The Mousetrap for yourself at St Martin’s Theatre. Find tickets here.
