Review: 'Deathtrap' at Cyranos

Posted by arts_reviews

Posted: September 8, 2007 - 8:42 am

By MAIA NOLAN

"Know your audience." It might be a cliché, but it's advice Cyrano's Theatre Company took to heart for the opening of its production of Ira Levin's thriller "Deathtrap," directed by Krista Schwarting.

On Friday night, the house was packed with members of the Alaska chapter of Sisters in Crime, a national organization that promotes female mystery authors. In an evening of action, suspense, twists and turns, even this audience, with all its mystery expertise, was kept on its toes.

Levin may be better known for his fiction than his plays. While the respective premises of his novels "The Stepford Wives" and "Rosemary's Baby" have become pop-culture punchlines, the truth is that Levin is a gifted writer of suspense, and "Deathtrap" is no exception.

In a WASP-y Connecticut village, playwright Sidney Bruhl, frustrated with laboring at his typewriter in search of another hit thriller, comes up with a scheme to bump off a young aspiring playwright and steal his promising script. Along the way Sidney encounters resistance from his wife, Myra, as well as an assortment of bumps in the road, including a neighbor who also happens to be a famous psychic.
Jeff McCamish and Dana Fahrney are a bit too deliberate as Sidney and Myra.  Fahrney and McCamish are supposed to be playing uptight Westport types; however, their performances feel stiff and a little overdone.  This does work in their favor when the characters themselves are supposed to be acting, and McCamish in particular delivers a couple of magnificently funny one-sided telephone conversations. Bowen Gillings is more natural as Clifford, the enthusiastic young writer who is the object of Sidney's murderous intentions.

Audrey Smith and Dick Reichman maintain the balance between comedy and suspense as the psychic neighbor and Sidney's lawyer, respectively.

Sets at Cyrano's have become progressively more involved and detailed over the years, and the "Deathtrap" set is particularly impressive. Brian Saylor has transformed the theatre into a Connecticut country home, complete with patio, fleur-de-lis wallpaper, and fireplace. The production's technical elements, including very effective uncredited lighting design, are spot-on. Oliver Siemens' subtle sound and original music add to the thriller aesthetic.

"Deathtrap" is Schwarting's Cyrano's directorial debut, although she has also directed a number of shows with other local companies. Her approach to the material is measured and careful, and it seems she has a hard time deciding whether to go for thrills or take the campy route. As a result, the script's more humorous elements are played up in a manner that threatens to derail the suspense, although the second act gets more suitably creepy than the first. While the cast sometimes feels too carefully coached for Cyrano's intimate stage, Schwarting takes advantage of the space to make some wise blocking decisions, including positioning Myra during a key scene so her face is hidden from the other characters but visible from the audience.  Myra's facial expressions offset the onstage humor by providing the audience with much-needed visual cues to Sidney's sinister motives.

Schwarting is at her best when she fully embraces the thriller moments, and to her credit, she nails it when it really counts. The final scenes of both acts are well-staged. To say more would be to give too much away; suffice to say they prompted shrieks from the audience on Friday night. And in a room full of mystery buffs, that's no small feat.

Maia Nolan lives and writes in Anchorage.

"Deathtrap" runs Thursday-Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. through Sept. 30. Tickets, $17.50, are available at www.centertix.net or (907) 274-2599.

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