Deathtrap at Castle Hill

Just how far will a once-successful playwright go for a new Broadway hit? Murder? But are things as they seem?

Playwright Sidney Bruhl once had a big Broadway Thriller hit, The Murder Game … but that was 17 years ago … would he kill a young playwright and steal his play for another shot at the bright lights.?

Sorry, you’ll just have to come along to Castle Hill’s Pavilion Theatre. Any more detail would spoil it.

Castle Hill Players’ next production is the highly theatrical thriller Deathtrap by Ira Levin (Rosemary’s Baby, Boys From Brazil, Stepford Wives).

Deathtrap opened on Broadway in 1978, running there for four years, and becoming Broadway’s longest running comedy thriller ever. A 1982 film version starring Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve and Dyan Cannon followed.

Like all the best thrillers, murders and twists come thick and fast, but so do the laughs, especially when a Dutch crime-solving psychic explodes on the scene.

Director Neil Litchfield said: “When I started directing this play I knew it was a thriller with lots of good laughs. As we rehearsed, the humour and broad farce just continued to emerge. Still, it’s a thriller, with the obligatory murders, so we’ve had a combat coach in to make sure they’re as scary as possible.”

Deathtrap opens at the Pavilion Theatre on November 20, playing until December 12.

Bookings: (02) 9634 2929 or http://www.paviliontheatre.org.au