Deathtrap.

Rating:
Summary: Engrossing comic mystery
Review: Ira Levin is a master of the novel and the stage play. He has brought us ingenious classics like The Stepford Wives, Rosemary's Baby, A Kiss Before Dying, and Veronica's Room to name just a few. Most of his works have translated brilliantly to film and are fun, clever, engrossing reads.

Deathtrap is a wonderful comic thriller, which I wish I had a chance to see play out on stage. It's a fun mystery that is as twisted as a pretzel with a fun and suspenseful climax. The first act ends with the big twist, one I did not see coming, leading the way for a completely different, but just as fun second act. Not many surprises in the second act, but it is just as fun.

To talk about this any more is to give away all the delicious things in store, so I will let you see for yourself how wonderful this play truly is. Read Deathtrap, then do yourself a favor and buy everything Ira Levin has written. You might thank yourself in the morning.

Rating:
Summary: i want to see this one performed!
Review: Possibly Ira Levin's best play, this is up there with "Rosemary's Baby." It is a very suspenseful and surprising story of a down-on-his-luck playwright, his wife, and an amateur writer who plays an important role. Filled with plays within plays within plays, countless "heart-in-the-mouth" shocks, and a surprising amount of dark humor, you will never forget this play once you have read it.

Rating:
Summary: A classic thriller where fiction becomes fact and then . . .
Review: What makes this play superb is captured right in the title: "Deathtrap: A Thriller in Two Acts." This is because the thrill of the first act is replaced by a twistedly different thrill in the second act. In Westport, Connecticut, we find playwright Sidney Bruhl and his loving wife Myra. Unfortunately, the well has run dry for Sidney who desperately needs a hit play and come not come up with anything. But then Sidney shows Myra "Deathtrap." It is, he explains, "A thriller in two acts. One set, five characters. A juicy murder in Act One, unexpected developments in Act Two. Sound construction, good dialogue, laughs in the right places. Highly commercial." With that blatant self-description author Ira Levin gives us the first of many nudge-nudge, wink-winks. You see, the only problem with "Deathtrap" is that Sidney did not write the play. It was written by Clifford Anderson, one of the "twerps" from Sidney's playwriting seminar. But maybe Sidney can find a way of making the play his own, even if it is over young Mr. Anderson's dead body.

Of course, Levin has already told us what is going to happen in the play, but as to who will be the victim of the first act's juicy murder, well, that is just the beginning of the fun. After all, there are still two other characters to be met and one of them is a Dutch psychic. "Deathtrap" is a roller-coaster ride that alternately amuses and terrifies, which is exactly what you want from a thriller. Best of all, you never catch up to the twists and turns. If there is a lesson to be learned here, then it is simply that nothing is more dangerous than a good idea.