Agatha Christie´s The Mousetrap has been on stage in London´s West End since 1952, being the longest running play in the world. Its brilliant intricate plot still keeps engaging the audience from start to finish.
Agatha Christie belongs to the Golden Age of the detective novel, during the inter-war period. Heiress of Conan Doyle´s tradition, her books were meant to be pure entertainment, games where readers matched wits with the author. One of her breakthroughs was to move crime from the predominantly urban world where it had always been set to the quietness of the English village; Monkswell Manor is the guesthouse where this extremely clever puzzle is set. The spectators are kept on the edge of their seats due to an atmosphere of shuddering suspense, suspicious clues, double identities, secret passions, hatred... and they are surprised at a tricky and startling denouement.
It was not in London, but in Avilés, at the Oscar Niemeyer International Cultural Centre, where I could also be captivated by this classic whodunit a few days ago. The project of the futuristic and controversial Centre was a present from the Brazilian architect to the Principality to give thanks for his Prince of Asturias Award for Art in 1989.
We have just been told the great Oscar Niemeyer has passed away. He would have been 105 in a week.
