Ah, Christmastime, when the nippy air is filled with heartwarming thoughts of family, friends and cold-blooded murder.
Thanks, Everyman Theatre, for providing the perfect anti-holiday entertainment — a revival of Ira Levin's good old-fashioned thriller "Deathtrap." This dose of duplicity, violence, nefariousness and more violence may just be the best spirit-lifter to come along this season.
Stick with all the usual feel-good fare, if you must (you really need to watch "Miracle on 34th Street" again?), but promise you'll catch up later with the show, which runs a couple weeks into the New Year. Everyone else can make a beeline for Fayette Street now to get in on what amounts to pretty much continuous, vicious fun for two and a half hours.
The Everyman production, directed with superb timing and tautness by director Vincent M. Lancisi, extracts just about every possible ounce of humor from "Deathtrap," the story of a well-known playwright with chronic writer's block and a would-be playwright itching for a chance at fame.
If, like me, you don't remember the play (or the movie version) being all that funny, this is a welcome refresher on how much drollery Levin packed into his 1978 script. Since a fair amount of that wit has to do with inside-theater stuff, it's even more of a kick hearing it inside a theater, where audiences are apt to relish the jokes all the more (they sure did on opening night).
For all the laughs along the way, the devious heart of the twisty plot still beats strongly. Count on enjoying a good deal of the jolts that put the thrill into a thriller.
Sending "Deathtrap's" light and dark matter into motion with a vengeance is a cast comprised entirely of Everyman resident artists, who demonstrate smooth rapport and that certain interactive confidence that comes with true ensemble efforts.
The show clicks tightly from the moment the curtain first parts to reveal a brooding Sidney Bruhl, the author of thrillers who hasn't had a genuine hit in 18 years — "Nothing recedes like success," he says, one of several lines that has a tinge of Oscar Wilde (there's also something Wildean in the way Levin keeps tables turning repeatedly in "Deathtrap").
Sidney has just read an unsolicited manuscript — a thriller, wouldn't you know, titled "Deathtrap" — sent to him by Clifford Anderson, a young man who attended one of Sidney's writing seminars. It's a good script, so good that "a gifted director couldn't even hurt it," the recipient says.
Doesn't take long for Sidney to start envisioning how he might steal the play and get rid of the writer, much to the discomfort of Sidney's wife, Myra. Sidney must be joking, right? Sure. But no harm in inviting Clifford out to the Bruhl's Connecticut home, is there, just to discuss the promising play?
And the game is afoot.
Those who already know all the secrets of that game (I'll try to resist the temptation for a spoiler) will likely still have a good time with all the intricate layers; even the occasional plot holes are fun to spot again. Those coming to the play for the first time should find much to savor in this kinetic production, where everyone is clearly having a ball.
Bruce Randolph Nelson jumps into the role of Sidney with his familiar vitality. He always does snarky retorts with flair, and gets lots of chances to do so here. He also delineates the multiple sides of Sidney's personality persuasively, which ensures a nice surprise with each shift.
Danny Gavigan, as Clifford, proves even more impressive at that sort of thing. He gives Clifford a perfect touch of nerdy for the budding writer's star-struck entrance; other, not necessarily appealing traits emerge in wonderfully telling detail. First-rate acting all the way.
Although stuck with a decidedly unbecoming dress in the first scene (Kathleen Geldard's costumes are otherwise spot-on), Beth Hylton holds the stage easily and vibrantly as Myra. Wil Love is an endearing scene-snatcher as Sidney's lawyer, the terrifically named Porter Milgrim.
And Deborah Hazlett, Baltimore's answer to Meryl Streep, once again demonstrates her versatility with a brilliant romp across the stage as Helga ten Dorp, the psychic staying next door, picking up worrisome vibes from the Bruhl abode.
Timothy R. Mackabee, who designed the current hot-ticket revival of "The Elephant Man" on Broadway starring Bradley Cooper, has conjured up an ideal environment for "Deathtrap's" deliciously evil business. The handsome set, rich in detail right down to every last spooky weapon from Sidney's odd collection displayed on the walls, has a way of pulling you in close to the action.
Jesse Belsky's lighting complements the scenic element perfectly, especially during the inevitable storm scene. Adding just the right note, literally, is Stowe Nelson's sound design; there's a lot of droll mileage even in the striking of a single keyboard tone.
This may qualify as a spoiler alert, so avert your eyes, if need be, but I have to mention that the production, like others over the years and the play's 1982 movie treatment, includes a kiss that isn't in Levin's script.
The Levin estate has been known to get touchy about the matter, but it's a perfectly logical addition. And the kiss is complemented in the Everyman staging by other admirably subtle underlining of a relationship that turns out to be such a painstaking and deathly trap.