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Play's chills counter summer's heat

The mystery Deathtrap makes wicked turns as it takes its audience on a mental roller coaster.

By BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN
Published July 20, 2005

TARPON SPRINGS - Nothing like a chilling thriller to cool off a hot Florida summer.

That's what drama director Dick Poole and his cast hope to deliver with Ira Levin's murder mystery Deathtrap, playing weekends through July 31 at the Tarpon Springs Performing Arts Center inside City Hall.

"I have never done a show like this in my life," said Poole, who has shelves full of theater awards for costuming and direction of musicals and dramas. "It's a bloody play," in the sense of the red stuff, not the British adjective, he said.

"But I wanted to do something different," Poole added.

Playwright Levin's 1958 hit (it holds the record for longest-running mystery play on Broadway - 1,809 performances) is packed with twists and turns that make the audience gasp, cover their eyes, and, once in awhile, burst into relieved laughter.

It's most often described as "ingeniously constructed," taking off in one direction, only to turn on a dime and go somewhere else.

In it, successful mystery playwright Sidney Bruhl, played by Norm Augustinus, is suffering a bad case of writer's block. As his mood sours, he receives a terrific manuscript from his protege, Clifford Anderson, played by Rick Bronson.

Sidney jokes to his seemingly devoted, wife Myra (Mary Lee Ross), that he might invite young Clifford over, murder him, and claim credit for his play. Clifford does arrive and a few days later, Sidney does strangle him, right there before the horrified eyes of the weak-hearted Myra.

Sidney buries Clifford in the back yard, and this seems to be the end of it.

But, wait; in Levin's play, nothing is as it seems. Is Clifford dead? Is Myra all that devoted to Sidney? Is Sidney in danger from an unknown enemy? And is he all that devoted to Myra?

And what does the famous Dutch medium crime buster next door, Helga ten Dorp (Doris Cerios), make of the goings-on virtually in her own back yard?

"The plot is so convoluted and twisted, the audience just gasps," Poole said. There are even whiffs of a homosexual relationship between Sidney and Clifford that add a new layer to the machinations of all involved.

In a director's decision, Poole has cut the last scene of the play, which was also changed in the 1982 movie starring Michael Caine and the late Christopher Reeve.

"That last scene just ruins the whole thing," Poole said.

[Last modified July 20, 2005, 00:57:15]