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Mousetrap Tours to Manchester, 22 Oct

The Mousetrap will celebrate its 60th anniversary at the West End's St Martin's Theatre with a national tour - the first time the production has been seen outside London since 1952. The Agatha Christie whodunit will mount a 60-week tour with an as yet unnamed, all-star cast rotating every 12 weeks.The tour reaches Manchester in October.

The Mousetrap tour will launch from the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury on 11 September with initial dates confirmed for Glasgow, Milton Keynes, Belfast, Cardiff, Plymouth, Manchester, Edinburgh, Southampton and Woking, finally travelling Bradford from 26 November to 1 December 2012.

The last time the famous detective story was seen outside of London was its pre-West End tour over half a century ago which starred Richard Attenborough and his film-star wife Shiela Sim.

Having already been translated into 50 languages and seen around the world, The Mousetrap will also mark its 60th anniversary by licensing 60 worldwide productions.

During the celebrations the show will be seen in every continent, with professional performances scheduled for Australia, China, Korea, Turkey, South Africa, Russia, Czech Republic, Hungary, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Poland, Spain, Scandinavia, Venezuela, the United States and Canada.

In the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s longest-running play, The Mousetrap is a classic whodunit - which celebrated its 50th West End anniversary, with HM The Queen in attendance, on 25 November 2002.

The production will now mark its 60th anniversary on 25 November 2012 with a gala held in aid of Mousetrap Theatre Projects, a theatre education charity which enables 12,000 disadvantaged young people to see London theatre each year. The charity will also run an educational writing project for short mysteries written by year 6 pupils across London.

For its diamond jubilee year The Mousetrap will also introduce a charity donation of 60p on each ticket. The fee will benefit a range of charities working with young people and the arts, including Mousetrap Theatre Projects.

The Theatreland institution, directed by David Turner, was originally opened next door at the Ambassadors Theatre, transferring to St Martin’s in 1974, after 21 years in its original home.

- by Andrew Girvan & Glenn Meads

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