Deathtrap was one of the biggest hits in the history of Broadway. As Levin described it, himself, it is a thriller in two acts, one set, five characters. The study of Sidney Bruhl, the principle character, is a handsomely converted stable grafted onto an authentic colonial house. In the movie version, directed by Sidney Lumet, the house was attached to a Dutch windmill. The most notable feature about Mr. Bruhl's study is the immense collection of guns, knives, handcuffs, maces, broadswords, and battle-axes that decorate the walls.

The five characters are:

Sidney Bruhl, about fifty, a playwright who once knew great success but has not had a hit in a long time. On Broadway the part was played by John Wood. In the movie it was played by Michael Caine.

Myra Bruhl, Sidney's wife, was played on stage by Marian Seldes and in the movie by Dyan Cannon. I have never had the privilege of seeing the play performed on Broadway, so I cannot comment on the performances of the people involved in the stage production, but I do feel compelled to say that Dyan Cannon's performance in the movie was one of the most delightful pieces of work I've ever seen.

Clifford Anderson was played by Victor Garber on stage and Christopher Reeve in the movie. Anderson is a young playwright.

We also have Helga ten Dorp, a psychic, famous for pointing out murderers to the European police, and Porter Milgrim, Sidney's lawyer.

The basic premise here is: How far will someone go to have a hit play? This is a story where everyone has hidden motives. There is a play called Deathtrap that has been written by Clifford and, by all accounts, it sure to be a big hit on Broadway - a sure thing. Almost every character in this story is going to try to possess this play and pass it off as their own work. There's absolutely nothing that any of them would stop at to get it.

A great deal of the delight in this story is that there are many times when the audience feels that they know exactly what the characters are going to going to do next - you feel like you're in on it. And there are times when we have to ask ourselves whether the victims are just blind to the plots unfolding about them or whether they are actually playing this game of murder so many moves ahead of their opponents that it makes no difference.

But each time we're certain we know which way the plot is going, Levin pulls the rug right out from under us. We become enmeshed in a series of delightful double-entendres. Clues, as to which way the plot is going, are going to be delivered to us on a silver platter and wrapped in ribbons. But which ones are real clues and which ones are ringers? Even a psychic can only guess, but the guessing is going to be lots of fun.

We have murder and treachery and it almost seems as if our characters are infected with an incurable obsession to, not only pocess the story of 'the perfect murder', but to live it. There's more cat and mouse here than in a Tom and Jerry cartoon.

In the genre of suspense it is not at all unusual for the police to show up shortly after a murder just to tighten the screws a little and to make the murderer apprehensive. One of the earliest examples of this was Edgar Allan Poe's masterpiece, The Black Cat but Levin has gone one better than that. He has a psychic arrive; someone who is not only capable of perceiving the physical event, but is also capable of picking up the very vibrations of murder from the air. The worst of 'worst case scenarios' unfolds as the murderers attempt to execute their plans.

But even with a psychic helping you, you won't see what's coming. The plot here is like quicksilver - each time you think you have it slips through your fingers.

Even as the play reaches its conclusion, Levin still teases us, delivering the climax during a thunder storm in a darkened house with flashes of lightning giving us flashes of insight and death. Its almost like making love to a woman who wants to tease you until you reach the greatest climax that you've ever known.

Deathtrap is something so evil that it infects all who touch it. The thing has a life of its own.

In Deathtrap Levin has taken the basic components of thrillers and horror stories; murder, deceit, innocent dialogue with hidden sinister meanings, plot reversals, unexpected turns of events, etc., and twisted and rearranged the pieces again and again.

Did he solve the puzzle of the perfect two act, five character thriller? I think he came as close as anyone can get, but the deeper answer might be that there are so many delightful arrangements of the elements of terror that no one can ever say the puzzle is solved. There is such delight and joy in the quest that I hope we never reach the point where we set aside our bloody weapons and deceitful suspects and assume that all the roads to the graveyard have been paved.

LEVIN DIRECTORY

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