Is this your first time in Wollongong? 

I think I’ve passed through Wollongong a couple of times over the years when I used to live in Sydney. But yes, it’s the first time I’m actually spending any quality time there. 

I’m a mad swimmer. I absolutely obsessively try to get to the ocean every day if the weather’s decent enough, and the weather’s been pretty amazing recently, so I’ll definitely be hitting up some of the local beaches. I’m really looking forward to having a good two weeks there and getting out and about and seeing what Wollongong has to offer as well as performing there at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre.

Do you enjoy touring in regional towns?

This tour that we started five months ago has been one of my favourite tours I’ve ever done because we’ve gone to these amazing regional places that I had never been before. 

It’s been so lovely because a show like this doesn’t always go to those sort of regional towns, so there’s been a consistent sense of appreciation from everyone coming to see the show that we’ve come to town. This particular show, The Mousetrap has such a sense of anticipation. There’s a real buildup and we get a great response everywhere we go. 

One of the other great things about this tour is going to the theatres themselves in each of the towns, they’re all so different and they’re all so beautiful, and we really appreciate the opportunity to step onto different stages and work with the local crews. 

The Mousetrap is written by the brilliant playwright and novelist Agatha Christie. What’s it like bringing to life one of the most famous murder mysteries?

Every performance is different. It’s an amazing thing to do a play that has existed for more than seven decades. It’s been running in London for nearly 72 years. 

In many ways people come along expecting a certain product, but really the audience are a really integral character within the show because we always have a really strong sense and appreciation that the audience are very busy all the way through trying to solve it. 

It’s not like some shows where they might be passively just watching and taking it all in. You really do anticipate this sort of sense of the audience on the edge of their seats trying to figure out ‘who done it’. 

The other thing is that it’s really entertaining. It’s a really fun show! It’s a murder mystery and you don’t necessarily expect to have as many laughs as you do. I can confidently say, after doing it for two years, that every performance, the audience are having a great time whilst also looking for all the clues and actively trying to solve this gripping mystery.

Tell me about the role you’re playing in The Mousetrap, what’s your take on it?

My character is Giles Ralston. His wife has inherited Monkswell Manor, an old manor house in the English countryside that they decide to convert into a guest house. The play starts on day one of the guest house opening to the very first customers, and we meet this revolving door of eccentric characters that come to stay at the guest house. 

There’s two parts to the mystery. There’s the mystery of ‘who dunnit’, the actual murder element of the show itself, but then there’s also this peripheral mystery, which is people coming to see the show because they also want to know ‘how has this show run for 72 years?’ How is it the longest running play in the world and why? I think consistently people are so pleasantly surprised by how entertaining it is and it all makes sense exactly why it’s been running all these years.

This is your second time playing Giles, what brought you back to continue the show this year? 

Originally I was really excited about the prospect of working with Robyn Nevin, our director. She and I were in a cast together of a production with the Melbourne Theatre Company years ago called The Drowsy Chaperone, which was a really exciting thing to be a part of 15 years ago. She’s been a legend, a doyen of the Australian stage and she’s still acting herself. 

She’s in Wicked whilst also directing us from a distance as we travel around the country. She’s just the most exacting director and it’s a really exciting rehearsal room to be in because she really is uncompromising in her pursuit of truth and logic and intensity and all the things that we love to go and see good theatre for.

She is a real master at the craft, and I’ve just absolutely cherished every moment of working with her. I think it’s undeniable that The Mousetrap has an undeniable history that you just can’t help but feel really intrigued about. 

I didn’t really know the play before reading the script and auditioning for it two years ago, and when I first read it before auditioning, I was really blown away by what was on the page because it really does keep you intrigued all the way through, and it’s really hard to figure out who the murderer might be. When we sat down and did a first reading of it in 2022, it just all came to life so brilliantly and it’s remained that way ever since.

This particular tour – going to regional areas – was a real attraction for me because I’ve never done a big regional tour like this. We’ve been to 12 different venues around the country from Hobart, all the way up to Darwin and then ten other venues in between. 

It has been such a joy to be coming to some sunnier places and escaping Melbourne winter, as well as just getting to meet local people. 

I think one of the most special things, and I’m sure it’ll be the same in Wollongong, is that local theatre communities have such a vibrant culture attached to them and it’s really lovely. We just have felt so welcomed and celebrated and it’s been really lovely everywhere we’ve gone. So I’m looking forward to stepping into that in Wollongong as well.

There’s some big names in this production, are you excited to be working with this cast and crew? 

It’s been just the most fantastic group to work with. I was lucky enough to be part of the original tour, which started two years ago. We started rehearsals in September 2022 for the original capital cities tour. 

Geraldine Turner, who is a legend of the Australian stage, has done a whole heap of leading lady roles over the last number of decades. And Jerry Connolly, who’s a true legend in Australian showbiz and a very well-known comedian has done impersonations of the Queen, amongst a whole range of other characters. 

They were both in that original cast, which I was part of, and they’ve remained on for this tour as well. To share the stage with them each performance is pretty exciting. They’re veterans, they’re absolute legends of the stage and really know how to hold the audience in the palm of their hands. 

The actress playing my wife is Hannah Fredrickson. She played opposite David Campbell in Dream Lover, the Bobby Darin musical, and then most recently she was in Harry Potter for nearly three years in Melbourne. She’s an amazing new leading lady, and she’s really thrilling to work with. We have some great scenes in the play, every night there’s this high octane sort of energy to them and we just have a ball. 

It’s all kind of coming to an end, this tour, Wollongong’s our last stop, so I’m going to be sad to finish working with them. It’s a really exciting cast.

Why should people come and watch the show?

To sweeten the deal, we have a great actor, Alex Wolfe. He’s here from the UK, He played the role of Christopher Wren in the West End production as well as Vienna. 

It’s really been special to have him part of our show this time around, he wasn’t in the capital cities tour, but he joined for this tour. He’s another great reason to come and see the show. 

It’s a beautiful design. You enter this world of 1952 English countryside the moment you step into the theatre. There’s that era of Broadway jazz music playing, it sets the scene, the atmosphere is there, and then the curtain goes up and you’ve got this gorgeous manor house and we’re all in the beautiful old English costumes, transporting the audience away with our English accents. It’s just fun. 

It’s that sense of taking the audience out of Wollongong to the English countryside for a couple of hours. That’s why we all love to go to the theatre and be taken away somewhere and the added bonus of getting to figure out who dunnit…

If they can!

Agatha Christie’s ‘The Mousetrap’ runs from 5th-15th of September at the IPAC in Wollongong.

Find out more and purchase tickets here.