Review: DEATHTRAP, Richmond Theatre

The British appetite for thrillers is seemingly unquenchable. Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap has now been running for 65 years in London and detective and murder mystery stories are standard Sunday night television fare.

Adam Penfold's revival of Ira Levin's 1978 Broadway hit Deathtrap is obviously intended to take advantage to that public craving for a thriller. Unfortunately, after a promising start, this production fails to either shock or thrill.

Sidney Bruhl, a once successful playwright, has not had a hit for decades. Now also working as a teacher, he receives a script from one of his students, Clifford Anderson, that he believes is potential box office gold. After inviting him to his home to hash out some changes, his wife Myra suspects that his jokes about murdering the student to claim the play for his own might come to fruition.

It would be unfair to detail the spoilers that follow, as some of them are genuinely surprised and clever, but this is not a subtle or nuanced story. The first twist is genuinely thrilling and changes the whole direction of the plot, but after that, each surprise is less and less plausible. The motivations of Sidney are difficult to believe and credibility is important in a thriller. The audience may not see events coming, but it is essential that they can accept that what they are seeing is, at least, possible.

Believability is the overall problem with the play. Paul Bradley is suitably harried as frustrated writer Sidney Bruhl, but he struggles to sustain his American accent throughout the play. As Myra Bruhl, Jessie Wallace does better with her accent at least. She is tense and worried, but the character is underdeveloped and rather wooden.

Sam Phillips is the standout performer as earnest student Clifford Anderson. He has a good stage presence and jumps between the charmingly naïve and darker aspects of the character very fluidly. He also maintains his accent throughout.

There is a distinct lack of chemistry between the cast. It is impossible to believe that Sidney and Myra have been married for over a decade as Bradley and Wallace seem so awkward and formal with each other. The relationship between Bradley and Phillips is also unconvincing.

The play is also intended to work as a satire on the thriller genre, with some black comedy slipped into the script. In one scene the characters act out a scene from a play and try to mimic the reactions of the audience. It is quite clever, but not tight enough to quite come off. Penfold's use of shock 'jump music' is effective the first few times, but quickly loses its effect and the addition of a large screen with snippets of classic thrillers such as Gaslight and Dial M For Murder is both odd and distracting.

Levin's addition of a stock eccentric foreign psychic Helga Ten Dorp feels like a character that belongs in a different play. Beverley Klein has a great time in the role, but it is hard to see what the character is there for. Her eccentricities begin as pastiche, but quickly become simply bizzare and annoying. Lawyer Porter Ball also feels superfluous; Julien Ball seems to have little purpose in the role and also cannot hold an American accent.

Unfortunately, the whole evening feels flat and clunky; there is nothing imaginative or new about the revival. This week at Richmond is the last week of a nationwide tour; it feels like a production that has very much run out of steam.

Deathtrap is at Richmond Theatre until 18 November

Photo Credit: James Beedham

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