By Britin Haller
Ask anyone who’s involved in the theater, or any serious theatergoer, to name a classic reliable show and invariably the name Deathtrap will come up. After all, it was the longest-running comedy-thriller on Broadway for decades. So when Janice Hamilton decided to start a new professional theatre company in South Florida (a risky proposition!) and call it Upstage Productions, she decided that going with a tried and true staple couldn’t fail. And it is Halloween season, after all.
You might think that in a five-person play, the plot would be relatively simple, but Deathtrap is anything but. And just when you think you have it all figured out, playwright Ira Levin (The Stepford Wives, Rosemary’s Baby) throws a curveball you likely won’t see coming. Giving a brief synopsis without giving away any spoilers is difficult, but we’ll try.
It’s 1978, and our protagonist Sidney Bruhl has spent a lifetime creating good theater and has been quite successful at it, so when the dreaded writer’s block rears its ugly head, Sidney can’t cope. He’s desperate to regain his former glory days, and even with his supportive wife Myra by his side, his crisis is real. So when the perfect script arrives in the mail one day, sent to Sidney by a former student of his named Clifford Anderson, a terrible plan starts to hatch in Sidney’s brain.
Before you know it, or Myra can stop him, Sidney has invited Clifford to their isolated country estate in Westport, Connecticut to talk about a collaboration. Clifford arrives with the only copy of the play he possesses because when he tried to make a duplicate copy the Xerox machine was broke. There’s also a zippered case holding all his scribbles and notes from when he was writing it. Finally, there’s his repeated claims that not only didn’t Clifford tell anyone he was taking the train to Sidney’s house, but that Clifford hasn’t told another living soul about his work on it because he would be embarrassed if it wasn’t any good.
So obviously, Sidney decides the only thing he can do is murder Clifford and steal his brilliant stage play for his own. And so begins a crisscross, of sorts, full of twists and turns that sometimes feels like Levin threw in everything but the kitchen sink, including an eccentric psychic woman who lives next door.
Larry Buzzeo is a familiar face to local theater and is well-known for being the brains behind his own company, ArtBuzz Theatrics. As the desperately out-of-control Sidney Bruhl, Buzzeo leads the cast admirably, never missing a beat in this physically demanding role which requires him to literally drape himself over the furniture at times. Buzzeo is having a blast, and it’s fun to see.
As the scriptwriting student Clifford Anderson, Om Jae pulls double-duty as the play’s fight director, no easy feat given it seems like half the play consists of one-upmanship in the physical arena. The other half of the play is made up of one-upmanship in the mental arena, and that’s where Betsy Bittar, as Helga Ten Dorp, comes in. With her over-the-top German accent and flowing attire, Bittar seems every bit the outlandish psychic she is rumored to be. Definitely a crowd favorite, Bittar made her exit in Act One to a round of applause.
Michele Verdi is cast as Bruhl’s long-suffering wife Myra. There’s not a lot we can say for fear of giving anything away, but suffice it to say, we feel Myra’s anguish. Verdi also provides necessary comic relief, until she doesn’t. Say no more.
In a part that seems a bit superfluous (not his fault), Matthew Pyle is Porter Milgrim, a family friend and Sidney’s attorney. We understand that Porter is the catalyst for Sidney finding something he needs to find, but this bit of business could easily have been done differently. But that’s an issue with Ira Levin, not Pyle, who also serves as the fight captain and gun wrangler.
Larry Buzzeo shines here on set design with a well-appointed one-room countryside farmhouse fitting of a wealthy author and his wife. Or ones who used to be wealthy, that is. And how nice not to have to worry about scene changes.
The props took some doing as they are specific items you probably don’t see every day like old manual and electric typewriters, a vintage push button phone, a garrote, an ax, a hatchet, swords and daggers, antique guns, and a medieval crossbow. And breakaway handcuffs that supposedly once belonged to Harry Houdini, but we won’t go there because what you do in the privacy of your home with a safeword is your own business. Posters on the wall display the artwork for some of Sidney’s most successful plays.
Stage Manager Patrick S. Vida creates magic from a lighting and sound board that’s positioned in the audience, but rather than being distracting, this somehow adds to the ambiance especially during the thunderstorm, or when the lights go out and all is not as it seems. Thanks to David Hart and Preston Bircher on sound and lighting design, respectively. Costumes are appropriate for 1978, however we were taken out of the action when we couldn’t stop wondering if the watch on Clifford’s wrist was authentic to the time period. Details matter. Just ask Christopher Reeve in Somewhere in Time.
Deathtrap premiered on Broadway in 1978 and became an overnight hit, running for almost 1800 performances. We would be amiss if we didn’t mention Marian Seldes who played Myra and reportedly never missed a show, although reports on this are varied with some claiming she did, in fact, miss one. Regardless, Seldes is mentioned in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Deathtrap was so popular that in 1982, it was adapted by Ira Levin into a film starring Michael Caine, Dyan Cannon, and Christopher Reeve, the latter actor in the height of his popularity just after Superman and Somewhere in Time catapulted him to fame. Since then, Deathtrap has become a darling of regional and community theaters, so much so that it is likely always playing somewhere at any given time.
When deciding on a director, Janice Hamilton had to look no further than her long-time collaborator, Deborah (DK) Kondelik, who also dressed the set and acted as prop designer.
Certainly with one madcap scheme after another where you are never really sure who’s the cat and who’s the mouse, Deathtrap will go down in history as a tightly wound comedy-thriller that walks a fine line between parody and suspense. When that dynamic falls flat however, the whole play loses tension, and this production, while earnest in its intentions, struggled at times to find that delicate rhythm.
We’d like to say it was opening night jitters, but the actors in Upstage Productions staging of Deathtrap were prepared. They knew their lines and their blocking. The cast approached the material with energy, yet the angst that should simmer just beneath the surface often dissipated too quickly with the essential rapport between the characters, more specifically Sidney and Clifford, just never taking hold.
As a first production for a new theater company, the players in Deathtrap do an admirable job entertaining us for two-plus hours but, and we mean this in the nicest way possible, more than one actor in the show could do with taking advantage of the acting classes that Upstage Productions will be offering soon, if for nothing more than learning how to project their voices as it was often hard to hear the dialogue without benefit of mics. And please don’t break character to gesture to an audience member as two of the actors spontaneously did.
We would be remiss to not mention these drawbacks, but still and all, it’s a live performance of a classic reliable comedy-thriller during Halloween season, AND you’ll be supporting a brand new South Florida theater company, so in the end, that’s enough.
Head down to the Empire Stage this month to catch Deathtrap, and find out for yourself why sometimes old reliables do just fine. Arrive early to enjoy the spooky music that led Producer Janice Hamilton, to proclaim “I feel like I’m at a funeral.”
Deathtrap from Upstage Productions plays through November 2 at Empire Stage, 1140 N. Flagler Drive, Ft. Lauderdale (two blocks north of Sunrise, east of the railroad tracks); Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm. and Sundays at 5 pm.. Running time approx. 120 minutes with a 15-minute intermission. Tickets $40, or mention the code TRAP for $5 off. Call 954-678-1496, or visit upstageproductions.net.
Britin Haller is a journalist, editor-for-hire, and an author who serves on the board of directors for the Mystery Writers of America Florida Chapter. As a celebrity wrangler, Brit regularly rubbed elbows with movie stars, sports stars, and rock stars, and as a media escort, she toured with New York Times bestselling authors/
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