THEATRE REVIEW: Sleuth - The Alhambra Theatre, Bradford.

 

‘Sleuth’, written over fifty years ago, retains a freshness and remarkable sense of originality. The popularity of murder-mystery set in an English country house shows no sign of diminishing, as evidenced by the current tour of ‘The Mousetrap’ and BBC's now annual Christmas offering but for the most part, the style is formulaic with always the same objective of discovering whodunit. Anthony Shaffer took this popular genre and turned it on its head in a way that has never been surpassed, and ‘Sleuth’ remains virtually unique, with Ira Levin’s ‘Deathtrap’ being perhaps the only play that truly measures up against it.

It is difficult to adequately review the cleverness of ‘Sleuth’ without giving away spoilers. In a nutshell, the character dynamics keep changing and just as the audience get comfortable with the set-up, it suddenly all changes and does so on numerous occasions. The play is also an interesting study of two worlds; the backward-looking view of a privileged gentleman, steeped in tradition and entitlement, contrasted with that of a forward-looking young son of poor immigrants. There is also a lot of social commentary, including observations of class hatred, snobbery and even the social context of the country-house murder-mystery genre itself.

‘Sleuth’, as with ‘Deathtrap’, is not without humour and the story weaves between high drama, intrigue, and laugh-out-loud comedy, as layer upon layer are peeled away from the main character’s desires and motivations, culminating in a very satisfying and surprising climax. It is a shame there are not more plays like this. This really is a play operating on multi-levels that keeps the audience constantly interested and guessing.

Many will be familiar with the '70’s movie version of ‘Sleuth’ starring Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine, which did full justice to the play (unlike a later remake in which Michael Caine swopped roles and Jude Law played the young man). To their credit, neither Todd Boyce as the ‘gentleman’ Andrew Wyke nor Neil McDermott as Milo Tindle let their own characterisations be influenced by the film versions. Each of them stamped their own interpretations on their respective roles and for what was largely a two-man show, demonstrated a lot of physicality between the two of them, with the spacious set used to full advantage. McDermott was genuinely funny, seamlessly switching into impassioned vulnerability as the story twisted and turned. Boyce made his character progressively arrogant and detestable, with the upperclass trait of almost never revealing any real emotion. The developing intellectual battle between these total opposites was fascinating to watch.

This production made no attempt to reinvent the wheel, with a superb and highly detailed set accurately depicting a great mansion somewhere in the home counties. Even the staircase seemed to boast an expensive, 100% woollen carpet and the set oozed wealth, tradition and clutter with not a single item looking modern. There were a few lively special effects and on a few occasions, background music to heighten the drama (although music was used sparingly and only at key moments of intensity).

The biggest testament to the success of this production was the audience. There were genuinely spontaneous gasps of surprise and loud laughter in equal measure. At other times, you could hear a pin drop as the two main actors had the audience caught up in intense observation. This was an excellent and sophisticated play given full justice by powerful performances keeping the audience spellbound. Against a superb backdrop, this was a wonderful piece of theatre and a great play to demonstrate just how engaging theatre can be.A

Reviewer - John Waterhouse

on - 13.4.23