Noel Coward Theatre St Martin's Lane
booking to Jan.22nd 2011
This play is a revival of the Ira Levin hit of 1978 and is in the genre of a murder mystery thriller with deap black humour overtones. The programme asks the audience member to keep the plot secret (shades of 'The Mousetrap') so as not to spoil the fun of future audiences. I shall therefore give only the sketchiest of outlines.
There are 5 cast members: Sidney Bruhl ( a murder mystery writer), his wife Myra, an ex student (also an aspiring murder mystery writer) Clifford Anderson, a dotty neighbour Helga ten Dorp with an uncanny gift for the E.S.P., and a solicitor/accountant Porter Milgrim. The setting is October 1978 in Sidney's study in the Bruhl household in Westport Connecticut.
Sidney receives in the post a script of a play ('Deathtrap') from Clifford and since he is suffering major writer's block is tempted to appropriate it to revive his fortunes. To do this of course he has to murder Clifford so he invites him over to stay under the guise of collaborating on the first draft of the play. Does he succeed? I will leave you to guess.
The play has lashings of black humour, blood, unexpected twists, and some out of your seat shocks which scared the pants of us all.
The seemingly predictable becomes seriously unpredictable which is not surprising as Sidney's study is festooned with artifacts such as knives, assorted pistols, a crossbow, an axe and the alleged handcuffs used by Houdini-all of which come into play at one point or another.Sidney is played by the established actor of considerable note Simon Russell Beale who turns in a very commanding performance. Equally good is Clifford played by a very confident American actor Jonathan Groff. The quality of the acting overall is very high and the direction (Matthew Warchus) very slick indeed.
This is the second play I have sat through this week with visual effects of a thunderstorm so I am wondering when that element is going to be introduced to Billy. Talking of Billy I could not exactly escape the connection when in the audience last night was none other than our esteemed Director Stephen Daldry (? a working visit as I did not see him after Act 1).
'Deathtrap' is a very well constructed play which initially ran for 1793 performances. It is great to see it reprised in London. I highly recommend 'Deathtrap' for a very entertaining evening when the expected turns out to be the very unexpected. I left the theatre having been seriously spooked which some may say is a recipe for a really good night out especially in Halloween week
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