Sleuth

Sleuth
By Anthony Shaffer. Ipswich Little Theatre. Director: Les Chappell. Incinerator Theatre, Ipswich. 19 September – 6 October, 2018

Sleuth premiered in London in 1970, running 2,359 performances and 1,222 on Broadway. Since then Anthony Shaffer’s ingenious two-handed cat-and-mouse thriller has been produced by every almost theatre company around the world and has long been a favourite on the community theatre circuit.

Set in a manor house in Wiltshire, England, Andrew Wyke is a successful mystery writer obsessed with game-playing (Shaffer claims he based the character on his friend composer Stephen Sondheim a noted games-obsessive). Wyke lures his estranged wife’s lover, travel agent Milo Tindle, to his house where he persuades him to embark on a scheme to steal his wife’s jewellery as part of an insurance scam. The game begins and once Milo is into it, he quickly becomes an avid player until Wyke reveals the whole exercise was to frame Milo as a thief, giving him an excuse to shoot him. It’s a complicated plot which keeps the audience guessing as to what is real and what is not.

Callum Campbell played the pompous and self-important Wyke with a cunning deviousness; a man who relishes the play and one-upmanship of the win and one who was determined to succeed. As his foe, Aaron Watson was a well-matched Milo, giving as much as he got then slyly turning the tables as he sought revenge. His second-act turn as the local plod was hilarious, complete with Groucho Marx glasses and nose and a regional accent. Together they were a formidable couple as they played out Shaffer’s bizarre games on an appropriately cluttered set that included a stained-glass window, tiffany lamp and life-size teddy bear.

Les Chappell’s direction kept it moving at a steady clip helped by Tony Erhardt’s spot on lighting and sound.

Peter Pinne         

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