Caught in the Deathtrap
26/08/2010
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.