The best plays of the year so far
Worth a Visit(s)?

Caught in the Deathtrap

02493_show_portrait With a title like Deathtrap and a set that is a weapon-lovers wet dream, murder is a sort of given at some point in the evening.

Simon Russell Beale takes the lead of this Ira Levin comedy thriller as middle-aged playwright Sidney Bruhl struggling to re-find the creative genius that once earnt him his crust and made him famous: "Nothing recedes like success". 

Then he meets young aspiring playwright, Clifford who's written a brilliant and potentially lucrative play (Glee's Jonathan Groff and yes I am the only one on the planet who's never a single episode or even heard of him).

I can say no more because the programme asks not to reveal any of the plot. What I can say is that in Russell Beale's hands the play crackles with whip snaps of witty one-liners and digs at the world of theatre. The production is also at times suitably thrilling giving it the ingredients to be described aptly as, well, as a comedy thriller I guess.

It isn't a thought-provoking play but it is a good ride and I'm looking forward to seeing how it stands up to a second viewing when I see it again tomorrow night.

Rev Stan rating: 4/5

Press night is next week but a few reviews have started appearing and are collated over on www.upthewestend.com where it gets and aggregated review of 3.2 out of 5 so far.


RS/BW 6DS

Initially this was looking quite tricky but then I spotted that Claire Skinner who plays Sidney Bruhl's wife was in the TV drama Booze Cruise in which Ben Whishaw also appeared back in the early days of his career.

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