STAGE REVIEW Playhouse's 'Deathtrap' is nasty fun

This whodunit is a play any dramatist would die for.
By MARGARET NERY
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- "Deathtrap," Ira Levin's gripping drama, opened Friday night at the Youngstown Playhouse where it held the sparse but appreciative audience in a state of unrelenting suspense until the very end.
Both amusing and confusing, the convoluted plot for "Deathtrap" has more twists and turns than a corkscrew. But that added to the fun created by the uninhibited cast as it romped realistically through the rather bizarre production.
At the center of all the madness and mayhem is Sidney Bruhl (brilliantly portrayed by Terry Shears), a once successful murder-mystery playwright who has apparently developed a bad case of writer's block. Despite his inability to write, he manages to assail critics, the theater and other writers with his witty but often barbed observations.
To support his wife, the soft-spoken but weak-hearted Myra (convincingly played by Tina Pestalozzi), he is reduced to the role of teacher and spends his time instructing students in the fine art of mystery writing.
Perfect script
Things get out of hand when one of Sidney's students, the gullible, apparently awestruck, Clifford Anderson (Marty Yavorcik), turns in a script that Sidney could just die (or kill) for.
Instead of dying, however, Sidney contrives an elaborate scheme to steal the play and pass it off as his own. The trap is set when he invites Clifford to spend some time at his remote cabin that just happens to be filled with a variety of lethal weapons including an ax and Samurai swords.
Here the unrelenting, mind-boggling action begins to take on sinister overtones as death enters the picture.
The desperate Sydney apparently strangles Clifford and decides to bury him in the garden. The blas & eacute; killer persuades his hysterical wife to help him move the body so he "won't get a hernia" doing it himself.
Tangled web
From then on it is hard to keep track of who dies, who doesn't and whodunit as the plot becomes a tangled web of schemes and counter-schemes.
Adding to the confusion is a meddling lawyer, Porter Milgrim (a believable Gary Deckant) and a zany Scandinavian psychic named Helga ten Drop (superbly played by Molly Galano).
The weird assortment of characters manage to turn the gathering into a surprising play about a play, a play filled with unexpected actions and a surprising ending.
The deception and despicable actions makes one wonder who is the real victim and who will be the next victim.
Directed by Keith Maguire, this interesting production is deliriously nasty fun filled with misleading clues and deceptive actions leading up to the moment when the real culprit gets what he rightfully deserves.