Ira Levin's Deathtrap

Ira Levin's Deathtrap: Stirling Stage Company

Deathtrap is an ingeniously constructed play, two-thirds thriller and one third clever comedy. Gasp-inducing thrills and spontaneous laughter, with twists and shocks until the last minute.

Unknown dramatist Clifford Anderson has sent his new thriller to award-winning Broadway author Sidney Bruhl for comment. Without a success for some years, Sidney plots with his reluctant wife Myra about how best to plagiarize ‘Deathtrap’ and when Clifford turns up to discuss the play with the ‘Master’ events take a sinister turn.

Each time we’re certain we know which way the plot is going, Levin pulls the rug right out from under us. We become enmeshed in a series of delightful double-entendres. Helga Ten Dorp, a psychic, famous for pointing out murderers, and Porter Milgrim, Sidney’s Lawyer, offer clues, or do they? The plot here is like quicksilver – each time you think you have it, it slips through your fingers – but the guessing is going to be lots of fun.

Image © Webster Theatre