The Mousetrap is a play by Agatha Christie that started off as a short radio play called Three Blind Mice in honour of Queen Mary, the consort of King George V.

It began a record shattering run on the London stage on 25 November 1952 at the Ambassadors' Theatre and has clocked up over 20,000 performances. It is still running to date (2005) at St Martin's Theatre .

The original West End cast included Richard Attenborough.

There is a book form of the play, but Christie asked that it not be published as long as it ran as a play in the West End of London. It has not.

Christie adapted the radio play into a short story, also titled Three Blind Mice, before writing the play [1]. The story is currently available in print.

By tradition, audiences are asked not to reveal the identity of the killer to anyone outside of the theatre at the end of the performance.