Deathtrap by Ira Levin. The Mill at Sonning, Reading RG4 to 30 March 2024.

3✩✩✩ Review: William Russell.

“Ira Levin’s venerable thriller fails to fire on all cylinders.”

A thriller in the same mould as Anthony Shaffer’s Sleut this 1978 story of a playwright suffering from writer’s block by Ira Levin was Broadway’s longest running comedy thriller and on the face of it should be ideal after dinner fare for this splendid dinner theatre. But everything has a life span and this sort of play has had its day in spite of a hard working capable cast, a handsome set and the excellence of the cuisine on offer. Once you have worked out that A does not lead to B nor necessarily to C the whole point of the goings on cease to amuse as playwright Sidney Bruhl (Nick Waring) and his boyfriend and would be playwright Clifford Anderson (George Watkins) set about scaring wealthy Mrs Bruhl (Emily Raymond) to death with a little accidental help from Helga ten Dorp (Issy Van Randwyk) an interfering psychic who lives nearby and Bruhl’s pompous lawyer Porter Milgrim (Phjlip Childs). Levin’s play is cleverly constructed but has now been around so long that a bit like The Mousetrap there are really no surprises left. It is not, and never was, about real life and also suffers, although director Tam Williams clearly is trying to whip his cast along, from the physical shape of the theatre. Sonning has an amphitheatre setting, but this is the sort of play that demands a proper proscenium stage if the set is to achieve the effect required of being both normal and menacing. Bruhl has an amazing collection of weapons on the walls of his living room which are all there to maybe be put to use – it is for the audience to speculate about as each twist turns - but somehow there is no focus on their presence, while the bad weather and the lights going out never quite convince that everyone is at risk from something outside in the dark. On the face of it Deathtrap should be a safe choice for dinner theatre but somewhere between rehearsals and performance something has not worked. However there are the consolations of the excellent cuisine, the elegant dining rooms, and the comfortable bar with a real mill wheel turning slowly in the corner. But sometimes playing safe is the wrong thing to do. This venerable thriller fails to fire on all cylinders.

Cast

Philip Childs – Porter Milgrim.

Issy Van Randwyck - Helga ten Dorp.

Emily Raymond – Myra Bruhl.

Nick Waring – Sidney Bruhl.

George Watkins – Clifford Anderson.

Creatives

Director – Tam Williams.

Set Designer – Michael Holt.

Costume Designer – Natalie Titchener.

Lighting Designer & Associate Sound Designer – Graham Weymouth.

Associate Sound & Lighting Designer – Henry Horn.

FightDirector – Jonathan Leverett.

Dialect Coach – Izo Fitzroy.