Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

What do you know about Agatha Christie’s best-known works? Why might Christie’s work continue to circulate today?

Teaching Suggestion: Famous for creating unforgettable detectives (Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple) and penning classic mystery novels (And Then There Were None, Death on the Nile), Agatha Christie is also the playwright of The Mousetrap, a work so enduringly popular that it set the world record for the longest continuous run before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of its home at the Ambassadors Theatre in London. Consider discussing Agatha Christie, her more popular works, and the impact of her novels and plays on society, then use the link to broaden student understanding of Agatha Christie.

• This article explores the life and works of Agatha Christie.

Short Activity

Reading a play such as The Mousetrap requires the audience to understand the vocabulary associated with drama and live performance. Use the following questions to draw conclusions about the purpose of each vocabulary term.

• What are stage directions? Why are stage directions important for understanding setting, body language, and implied meanings?
• How is a play usually formatted? What roles do acts and scenes play in the structure?
• What is an aside? How might it be used in production?
• What are the purposes of the terms enter and exit in stage directions?
• What is the fourth wall? How is it used in productions?