Harriet Whitmyer as Helga and Allison McGuire as Myra
Cory Bilicko
Managing Editor
I’ve never experienced such a jarring moment in a theatrical production as I did last Saturday night over on Anaheim Street. But I’m getting ahead of myself here.
In staging Ira Levin’s Deathtrap, which takes the murder-mystery-thriller genre and turns it on its head, Long Beach Playhouse is pretty much killing it.
Here’s the non-spoiler set-up: formerly successful playwright Sidney Bruhl, who is dying for a hit, tells his loving spouse Myra that one of his former students, Clifford, has sent him a rough draft of his own script, which, as it turns out, is actually quite a good story… just the kind of work Sidney himself has been struggling to write. The frustrated elder writer, in true literary fashion, proceeds to invent a string of hypotheticals that involve his inviting the young, aspiring playwright over to give him suggestions on improving his play, then murdering him and claiming his story idea as his own. However, as he shares this narrative with Myra, she becomes increasingly worried that her hubby’s fictitious plot line might be more than just the clever outline for a new play.
Sidney sets up the meeting with Clifford, picks him up from the train station and takes him home, where he soon discovers that Clifford hasn’t yet had a chance to make any more copies of the script. Shortly thereafter, Myra watches in horror as Sidney chokes the young man, killing him, then dragging his body away in a rolled-up rug.
When Helga, a psychic neighbor, shows up and shares her uncannily close-to-home predictions about what may have occurred, things go from deathly serious to deliciously sinister to delightfully tense.
Deathtrap, as a play and thriller, masterfully creates a scenario that is undeniably titillating; its characters dare to speak the conveniently horrible possibilities of the situation at hand, leaving the audience in an amused state of suspense.
The set design by Andrew Vonderschmitt, the Playhouse’s producing artistic director, extends the painted walls and framed pictures of the one-room set, Sidney’s study, into the mainstage theatre’s house (in this case, I’m referring to the area where the audience sits). The Playhouse’s mainstage is already of the three-quarter-round type, so it’s easy for those in attendance to feel as if they’re right there where the action is happening, but the choice to have the setting consume part of the audience area was a subtle but effective move.
Director Gregory Cohen has chosen a more than apt quintuplet to fill the shoes of the five-member cast. Gene Godwin as Sidney strikes the right notes in portraying the play’s dark humor— a must in this role.
Allison McGuire is restrained just enough to embody Myra, who is rather delicate with her weak heart, but McGuire’s subdued, but in-the-moment, presence allows the others to “go big.” She’s a counterpoint to their antics and the play’s moral compass.
Gene Godwin (left) as Sidney and Johnny Martin as Clifford in Long Beach Playhouse’s production of Deathtrap
Jim Perham, portraying Sidney’s lawyer Porter (having previously played the same role in another production), appears in the second act and comes across so realistically, it’s as if he just walked onto the set off the street and sat down for a real-life conversation.
I’d be remiss to not give “props” to the clear audience favorite, judging by the amount of laughter she generated and the applause she garnered— not only at curtain call, but after one of her scenes midway through the play. Without chewing on scenery but with impeccable timing and liveliness, the red-haired Harriet Whitmyer as the psychic Helga proved resoundingly that there are indeed “no small parts.”
My own prediction is that Whitmyer has more magnificent performances in her future.
Deathtrap will be presented at the Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E Anaheim St., through Feb. 15. For more information, call (562) 494-1014 or visit lbplayhouse.org .
[Ed. note— The Long Beach Playhouse hosted an art show by Bilicko last summer.]