[NEohioPAL] Review of "Deathtrap" at Great Lakes Theater

[Bob Abelman]

Great Lakes Theater's 'Deathtrap' is captivating 

 

Bob Abelman

Cleveland Jewish News

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review will appear in the Cleveland Jewish News on 2/28/14

 

 

"Pain!!!!" screeches Helga, the Scandinavian psychic in Ira Levin's "Deathtrap," as she enters the stage and senses murder most foul.  

 

But pleasure is the only emotion emanating from the audience during this wonderful Great Lakes Theater production of Broadway's longest running play-within-a-play-within-a-comedy thriller.

 

In "Deathtrap," middle-aged murder mystery writer Sidney Bruhl is in need of a killer idea.  Once the toast of Broadway, he is now void of creativity and desperate to maintain the wealth and stature to which he and his wife have grown accustomed.  When a young, unknown playwright sends him a script to die for and seeks his advice, the has-been writer sees a lethal opportunity to claim the work of this up-and-comer as his own.  In a creative series of twists, turns and reversals that blur the line between fact and fiction, the script in question lays out the very plot of the play in progress.   

 

"Deathtrap" is a cleverly written piece that embraces all the formulaic conventions of the murder mystery.  So, too, does this production of it.  

 

Scenic designer Russell Metheny provides all the requisite trappings in his stylish Connecticut manor on the Hanna Theatre stage, complete with a living room wall tastefully decorated with dozens of viable murder weapons, sliding doors and flowing curtains behind which mayhem might be lurking, and plenty of open space for bodies to hide, fall or loiter while waiting for one or the other to occur.  

 

Lighting designer Rick Martin and sound designer Richard B. Ingraham turn a lightning storm into an art form, and add film noir-era music to scenes and segues for good measure - just in case there is still some doubt about what genre we have been asked to buy into.  

 

But this is a comedy to boot, which requires an exceptional team of artists to sustain suspense while delivering with a straight face all its imbedded self-deprecating references to theater in general and murder mysteries in particular.

 

This ensemble is quite exceptional and, under Charlie Fee's inspired direction, manages to employ the comedy as camouflage for the mechanisms that set up the mystery and use the element of mystery to set up the comedy.  

 

The result has you laughing from the very edge of your seat.

 

Tom Ford, as the hackneyed Sidney Bruhl, musters the same semblance of evil he channeled during his recent portrayal of Sweeney Todd, but it is beautifully tempered by an engaging smile, an acerbic wit, and a fast-paced patter.  His comic timing is as impeccable as his ability to shift gears into something a tad more sinister.

 

The same can be said for the other players, which include Nick Steen as the enigmatic young playwright Clifford Anderson, Tracee Patterson as Sidney's high-strung wife Myra,  Lynn Allison as the forensic psychic Helga Ten Dorp, and Aled Davies as Sidney's attorney Porter Milgrim.

  

Their rich and fully-formed portrayals of murder mystery archetypes get the audience to invest emotionally in each of their characters.  This, in turn, builds the suspense, which adds the tension, which springboards the comedy, which makes for an absolutely enjoyable evening of theater.

 

What:              "Deathtrap"

Where:            The Hanna Theatre, PlayhouseSquare in downtown Cleveland

When:             Through Sunday, March 16

Tickets:           $15 - $70, call 216-241-6000 or visit to www.clevelandplayhouse.com

 

 
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