This is a play about a play. It’s also about a play that is  –  or isn’t  – being written. It all depends on who is writing it and who is stuck with writer’s block.

It doesn’t end there. It’s also about who did what, who killed whom, and how on earth are we all going to get out of this mess?

So what’s the play all about? The whole performance takes places in Sidney Bruhl’s (Guy Steddon) study in Connecticut, USA during the late 1970s. Sidney – the supposed senior – looks at his typewriter but barely touches a key. In fact, he hasn’t typed a word all day, or for several days, or maybe much longer than that!

Meanwhile, the arrival of one of Sidney’s bright students – a young man called Clifford Anderson (Jake Marchant) – is studiously typing in the study without ever stopping or missing a key. The words are pouring out from Clifford’s typewriter. It’s beginning to get on Sidney’s nerves. Who wants to be upstaged by their own younger side kick?

In fact, it looks as if the text being so innocently typed on stage might even be the play the audience are watching right here in Southwick! Surely not? That’s getting us too close to postmodern complexity.  Whose play is this, we might ask. Or is the whole play and plot just one big joke? We might ask Julian Batsone – our excellent and canny director  – but watch out for axes and murders!

Is it possible that Sidney might get too wrapped up in his own jealousy and ineffective prose? Worse still, maybe his young understudy, Clifford – dressed in a very suitable smart black suit – might just get on the wrong side of a real whodunit murder. The eye contact and body language tell their own malicious story. The plot doesn’t just thicken – it boils.

Ira Lewin’s previous form for murky stories have included film scripts such as Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives. But ‘Deathtrap’ – written in 1978 – has been seen as a particularly successful two act comedy thriller. It was adapted as a film version in 1982 featuring Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve. 

To make sure he won’t be traced, Sidney bins any earlier manuscripts that young Clifford has typed. He then drives to the station to pick up the young prodigy writer. He’s ready to plagiarise all of Clifford’s existing writing – and then delete the originals. Sidney reckons, that while he’s at it, why not also ‘delete’ (aka murder) the upstart writer altogether?

Meanwhile, Sidney’s attorney, Porter Milgrim (John Garland), reckons he’s seen Clifford locking the crucial manuscript in the desk drawer. The murder stuns Myra (Anna Quick) who collapses while Helga Ten Dorp (Susanne Crosby) starts having visions.

On the night of this high octane performance of ‘Deathtrap’ the wind and rain were howling around the Barn Theatre. This seemed in empathy ­– or collusion – with the play’s complex, dramatic and interwoven themes.

Top class theatre on your doorstop!