Perfection In Plot And Presentation

By Julie Stern

Ira Levin hit the jackpot big time with his tale of demonic possession in the Dakota, and fortunately for him, went on to further his cinematic renown with scary thrillers like The Stepford Wives and The Boys From Brazil. But what if Rosemary’s Baby had been a one trick pony, and he had been unable to repeat his magic formula? Such is the plight of playwright Sydney Bruhl, the protagonist of Levin’s Deathtrap, which opened last weekend at The Little Theatre in Newtown.

The Connecticut playwright has parlayed his early success into the opportunity to give seminars on how to construct  plays, but in fact, his creative wellsprings seem to have dried up. Adding insult to injury, one of his pupils has sent him a perfect example of the genre, humbly asking for the “master” to critique it.

It’s a perfect script, Bruhl tells his wife. It has everything: a murder in the first act, five characters, one setting, some good laughs, and unexpected twists of plot. It soon becomes obvious that what Bruhl really wants to do is to steal the script and publish it as his own. Of course this would require eliminating the solitary young man who actually wrote it, as well as fending off the unwanted attentions of a visiting Dutch psychic and Bruhl’s sharp-eyed lawyer.

And soon we recognize that the play submitted by the shy and reclusive Clifford Anderson is none other than the play we, the audience, are watching. It even has the same catchy title, Deathtrap.

From that point all the elements in Suzanne and Larry Kinnears’ carefully detailed set – from the collection of lethal weapons decorating the wall of Bruhl’s Westport study to the partner desk which Bruhl acquires for the two men to share after he invites Anderson to be a live-in secretary, take on dramatic significance as the story unfolds.

Similarly, the visions of the redoubtable Dutchwoman, Helga Ten Dorp, and the suspicions of Porter Milgrim the lawyer, and the “weak heart” of Bruhl’s wife Myra, all take us down the primrose path of unexpected occurrences that made this play the longest running thriller in Broadway memory, and a staple of local theater groups who want to draw large benefit audiences.

In this Little Theater production, I was particularly charmed by the fourth and fifth characters,  Milgrim and Ten Dorp,  as portrayed by the husband and wife team of Bart and Ruth Schofield.

Additionally, Kristi McKeever was wan and willowy as the woeful wife, Gary Nastu was nasty as Sydney, and Michael Rodriguez-Torrent worked hard as the secretive Clifford, with a manner reminiscent of Patricia Highsmith’s character the remarkable Mr Ripley.

(Performances continue through November 29 on Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons. Call 270-9144 for curtain and ticket details. The theater is on Orchard Hill Road in Newtown, just off Route 25.)