The Richmond Hill Barn Theatre's The Mousetrap is a reasonably entertaining presentation of author Agatha Christie's material. There were plenty of good laughs during Thursday's performance, and director Gary Clark and his cast did well in not giving away what's known as "the best kept secret in theatre" until its final reveal - that secret being the identity of a London murderer who is now, very likely, among the guests in the newly opened Monkswell Manor boarding house.

Prior to its appearance on the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre's 2008 schedule, I hadn't heard of the Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope, and Jamie Wooten comedy Dearly Beloved, so I was reasonably surprised when I arrived for Thursday's opening-night presentation and saw that, barring a handful of seats, the house was completely full. (Did these people know something I didn't?) I took it as a good sign, however, and there was an even more promising one not 60 seconds after the show started, when its first line, its very first, earned a huge, unexpected laugh.

Watching Arcadia, the Tom Stoppard jigsaw puzzle currently playing at the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre, is like watching a really engrossing foreign-language film without subtitles. You may not understand what's going on, but the actors and director seem to, so you strive to make sense of the proceedings through the performers' inflections, reactions, and occasional lines of dialogue where the meaning is evident. You find yourself desperately wanting to get it.