Review: Deathtrap, Salisbury Playhouse

This edgy and enthralling play, written by Ira Levin in 1978, was the longest running comedy-thriller on Broadway.

Levin, the talented Jewish-American writer, also created the occult shocker Rosemary’s Baby, the hugely thought-provoking and ground-breaking The Stepford Wives, and the powerful Holocaust-inspired The Boys From Brazil.

Deathtrap is set in a comfortable house in Connecticut, (another superb stage-set from Salisbury Playhouse) the American accents are smooth, lighting dramatically atmospheric, and the sound effects instantly hooky.

This is the story of Sidney Bruhl, a once successful but now frustrated playwright, whose Creative Writing student Clifford turns up with a promising piece: Deathtrap. Essentially a play about a play, Bruhl intends to kill him and claim the work is his own.

Overhead projection film clips of Gaslight, Dial M for Murder, Witness for the Prosecution, and Sleuth are interesting, effective and apposite.

Act One contains four separate and genuinely shocking revelations, the fight scenes utterly convincing, the storytelling hard-hitting. Act Two however teeters on the edge of slapstick, the “psychic” Helga increasingly cartoonish and absurd.

As the scheming, self-serving and manipulative old pro Sidney Bruhl, Kim Wall is outstanding; as the naively hopeful but equally calculating writing beginner Clifford, Sam Phillips effectively blends innocence with menace.

Performing together, the sparks fly, from the gruesomely chilling garrotting scene, through the self-satisfied gay kiss, to the bizarre finale featuring Sidney’s collection of antique guns, handcuffs and daggers.

Great fun!

Brendan McCusker

Deathtrap runs until February 27.

Tickets: 01722 320333 or visit salisburyplayhouse.com