Providence University College is hoping to get their theatre program rolling again with their production of The Mousetrap.

Marc Moir is the Director and an Actor. He says they decided to choose The Mousetrap because it has great historical significance in the theatre world and Agatha Christie is possibly the greatest female playwright of all time.

"The Mousetrap is the most successful play of all time, the longest running play in theatre history, it has been running non-stop since October of 1952 so about 70 years. It is a piece of theatre history and plus it is obviously a real crowd favourite so we were thinking ‘how can we get Providence Theatre back in the game in one swing,’ and The Mousetrap seemed like a pretty logical way to do that."

A few years ago Providence dropped performing arts as a major. Moir says more recently the school has decided to view theatre as part of a well-rounded education rather than a stand-alone program.

"Providence Arts in general, we are in a rebuilding phase. It is exciting, we have got a great young staff who are really passionate, really exciting about everything they are doing there. Just to put something out there again to try and start building a little momentum for theatre at Providence again. You can also minor in theatre at this point, and in the future, who knows, we may see a major program again."

Moir says with over 27,000 performances in London’s West End, The Mousetrap is steeped in history and they are very excited to bring some of that history to the stage at Providence University College with some special props.

"We have a gorgeous set, some nice period furniture. And then, some colleagues from London were also kind enough to send me some props from the London production as well. There are some really rare Mousetrap props and we are going to actually have them on display for the general public before the performances and then our stage manager will come collect them."

Moir says the cast for The Mousetrap is very talented and have put together a high-quality theatre production. The Mousetrap opened Thursday evening and runs until Sunday.