Editing Agatha Christie (section)

==== Plays ====
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| caption1          = ''[[The Mousetrap]]'', the world's longest-running play, showing at the [[West End theatre|West End]]'s [[St Martin's Theatre]] in 2011, with the sign signifying the 59th year of the production
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In 1928, [[Michael Morton (dramatist)|Michael Morton]] adapted ''The Murder of Roger Ackroyd'' for the stage under the name of ''[[Alibi (play)|Alibi]]''.<ref name="Morgan1984"/>{{Rp|177}} The play enjoyed a respectable run, but Christie disliked the changes made to her work and, in future, preferred to write for the theatre herself. The first of her own stage works was ''[[Black Coffee (play)|Black Coffee]]'', which received good reviews when it opened in the [[West End theatre|West End]] in late 1930.<ref>Thompson, Laura (2008), ''Agatha Christie: An English Mystery'', London: Headline Review, p. 277, 301. ISBN 978-0-7553-1488-1</ref> She followed this up with adaptations of her detective novels: ''[[And Then There Were None (play)|And Then There Were None]]'' in 1943, ''[[Appointment with Death (play)|Appointment with Death]]'' in 1945, and ''[[The Hollow (play)|The Hollow]]'' in 1951.<ref name="Morgan1984"/>{{Rp|242, 251, 288}}

In the 1950s, "the theatre&nbsp;... engaged much of Agatha's attention."<ref>Thompson, Laura (2008), ''Agatha Christie: An English Mystery'', London: Headline Review, p. 360. ISBN 978-0-7553-1488-1</ref> She next adapted her short radio play into ''[[The Mousetrap]]'', which premiered in the West End in 1952, produced by [[Peter Saunders (impresario)|Peter Saunders]] and starring [[Richard Attenborough]] as the original Detective Sergeant Trotter.<ref name="Mousetrap record"/> Her expectations for the play were not high; she believed it would run no more than eight months.<ref name="Auto1993"/>{{Rp|500}} ''The Mousetrap'' has long since made theatrical history as the world's longest-running play, staging its 27,500th performance in September 2018.<ref name="Mousetrap record">{{cite news |last=Moss |first=Stephen |date=21 November 2012 |title=The Mousetrap at 60: Why is this the world's longest-running play? |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/nov/20/mousetrap-60-years-agatha-christie |access-date=8 April 2020 |archive-date=10 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200810022443/https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/nov/20/mousetrap-60-years-agatha-christie |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Brantley |first=Ben |date=26 January 2012 |title=London Theater Journal: Comfortably Mousetrapped |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/london-theater-journal-comfortably-mousetrapped/ |access-date=26 January 2012 |archive-date=30 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190930221446/https://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/london-theater-journal-comfortably-mousetrapped/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>[https://www.the-mousetrap.co.uk/Online ''The Mousetrap'' website] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150623162102/https://www.the-mousetrap.co.uk/Online/|date=23 June 2015}}, the-mousetrap.co.uk. Retrieved 2 June 2015.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://uk.the-mousetrap.co.uk/the-history/ |title=The History |website=The Mousetrap |language=en-GB |access-date=25 April 2020 |archive-date=19 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190119121315/https://uk.the-mousetrap.co.uk/the-history/ |url-status=live}}</ref> The play temporarily closed in March 2020, when all UK theatres shut due to the [[COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom|coronavirus pandemic]],<ref>{{cite web |date=17 March 2020 |title=The West End and UK Theatre venues shut down until further notice due to coronavirus |url=https://www.londontheatredirect.com/news/the-west-end-and-uk-theatre-venues-shut-down-until-further-notice-due-to-coronavirus |access-date=5 May 2020 |website=[[London Theatre Direct]] |language=en |archive-date=8 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200508232524/https://www.londontheatredirect.com/news/the-west-end-and-uk-theatre-venues-shut-down-until-further-notice-due-to-coronavirus |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=22 April 2020 |title=The London theatres that are closed due to coronavirus |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/theatre/london-theatres-west-end-closed-coronavirus-a4388676.html |access-date=5 May 2020 |website=[[Evening Standard]] |language=en |archive-date=19 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200419211926/https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/theatre/london-theatres-west-end-closed-coronavirus-a4388676.html |url-status=live}}</ref> before it re-opened on 17 May 2021.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lawson |first1=Mark |title=The case of the Covid-compliant murder: how The Mousetrap is snapping back to life |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/may/05/case-covid-compliant-mousetrap-snapping-back-agatha-christie-whodunnit |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |access-date=20 July 2022 |language=en |date=5 May 2021}}</ref>

In 1953, she followed this with ''[[Witness for the Prosecution (play)|Witness for the Prosecution]]'', whose [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] production won the [[New York Drama Critics' Circle]] award for best foreign play of 1954 and earned Christie an [[Edgar Award]] from the [[Mystery Writers of America]].<ref name="Morgan1984"/>{{Rp|300}}<ref name=":12"/>{{Rp|262}} ''[[Spider's Web (play)|Spider's Web]]'', an original work written for actress [[Margaret Lockwood]] at her request, premiered in the West End in 1954 and was also a hit.<ref name="Morgan1984"/>{{Rp|297, 300}} Christie became the first female playwright to have three plays running simultaneously in London: ''The Mousetrap'', ''Witness for the Prosecution'' and ''Spider's Web''.<ref>{{cite news |title=Everyone loves an old-fashioned murder mystery |url=https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/theatre/everyone-loves-an-old-fashioned-murder-mystery/article25664054.ece |newspaper=The Hindu |date=4 December 2018 |access-date=29 August 2020 |last1=Phukan |first1=Vikram |archive-date=20 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520060606/https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/theatre/everyone-loves-an-old-fashioned-murder-mystery/article25664054.ece |url-status=live}}</ref> She said, "Plays are much easier to ''write'' than books, because you can ''see'' them in your mind's eye, you are not hampered by all that description which clogs you so terribly in a book and stops you from getting on with what's happening."<ref name="Auto1993"/>{{Rp|459}} In a letter to her daughter, Christie said being a playwright was "a lot of fun!"<ref name="thompson"/>{{Rp|474}}