International City Theatre winds up its 2023 season with Ira Levin’s Broadway suspense classic Deathtrap, guaranteeing audiences an abundance of thrills and chills and gasp-worthy plot twists amidst an equal bounty of laughs.

To this day the longest running thriller in Broadway history (and the most deliciously meta of the bunch), Deathtrap riveted New Yorkers (and tickled them to death) for a record-breaking four years from 1978 to 1982.

Our middle-aged hero is Sidney Bruhl (Geoffrey Lower), author of the smash hit Broadway thriller The Murder Game and the four flops that followed it, currently living a quiet life in Westport, Connecticut alongside wife Myra (Jill Remez) while trying in vain to write hit #2, the perfect five-character, one-set, two-act thriller. (That this describes to a T the play we’re watching at ICT is only one of Deathtrap’s countless self-aware winks at the audience.)

Sidney has recently received a script in the mail, coincidently titled Deathtrap, written by a former student of his, and since this is precisely the play he’s been trying to write for lo these many flops, he suggests to Myra that it might not be such a bad idea to murder its author Clifford Anderson (Coby Rogers), and present the play as his own.

Since Deathtrap is set in the pre-Microsoft 1970s, there are only two copies of Clifford’s play in existence, the original and the carbon which he has sent to Sidney. (Conveniently, the fledgling writer says he’s waiting for Sidney’s suggestions before Xeroxing additional copies.) All Sidney has to do, should he decide to go through with his deadly intentions, is send the fresh-faced would-be playwright to his maker, and presto, Sidney Bruhl will have another smash hit on his hands.

Complicating matters for Sidney is next-door psychic Helga ten Dorp (Michelle Holmes), who senses “pain and death” in the writer’s study, particularly when she sees the large collection of daggers, guns, battle-axes, maces, and crossbows decorating the study walls, mementos of Sidney’s previous plays. The five-character cast is completed by Porter Milgrim (Patrick Vest), Sidney’s lawyer, who pops by in Act Two.

Like any mystery thriller worth its salt, Deathtrap keeps its audience guessing about what will happen next … and insuring they will be wrong 99% of the time.

Lucky indeed, then, are Deathtrap virgins seeing the play for the first time, though almost equally fortunate are those rediscovering Deathtrap’s many unexpected plot twists, or watching for clues and red herrings with the wisdom of foreknowledge.

Director Jamie Torcellini, comedic master that he is, proves the perfect choice to helm the Levin classic at ICT, while ensuring that every shocking twist and turn packs a gasp-inducing punch, and never more so than when joining forces with lighting designer Crystal R. Shomph and sound designer Dave Mickey in a shocker of an surprise entrance to do Alfred Hitchcock proud.

L.A. stage vet Lower gives Sidney equal parts craftiness and verve, Remez is terrific as a wife whose heart is as caring and supportive as it is attack-prone, Holmes has great fun as the veird und vacky (translation: weird and wacky) Helga, Vest does his reliably topnotch work as Sidney’s levelheaded lawyer buddy, and talented recent Pepperdine grad Rogers lights up every scene he’s in as aspiring playwright Clifford.

In addition to their stunning collaboration in the aforementioned “surprise entrance” scene, Shomph lights the stage to maximum dramatic effect as sound designer Mickey’s harpsicord-based musical underscoring enhances the suspense every twisty turn of the way.

Scenic designer Fred Kinney and properties designers Patty and Gordon Briles give us a terrific rendition of Sydney stable-turned-study, its walls festooned with both weapons and lobby cards.

Last but not least, fight director Vest has choreographed a grippingly intense combat sequence sure to end badly for at least one of its combatants.

Donna R. Parsons is production stage manager and Caitlyn Nguyen is assistant stage manager. Casting is by Michael Donovan, CSA, and Richie Ferris, CSA. Lucy Pollak is publicist.

Every bit as edge-of-your-seat as Wait Until Dark and Dial M For Murder (but a whole lot funnier than the two of them combined), Deathtrap easily justifies its reputation as a Broadway thriller for the record books. Check it out at International City Theatre and you’ll see why.

International City Theatre, Long Beach Performing Arts Center, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach.
www.InternationalCityTheatre.org

–Steven Stanley
October 20, 2023
Photos: Kayte Deimoa

Tags: International City Theatre, Ira Levin, Los Angeles Theater Review