Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture

Thriller-Comedy ‘Deathtrap’ Brings Mystery and Fun to Syracuse Stage

Thursday, May 4, 2017, By Joanna Penalva
Share
Syracuse Stage

Syracuse Stage presents “Deathtrap,” a comedy-thriller guaranteed to keep audiences on the edge of their seats. Written by award-winning playwright and novelist Ira Levin, “Deathtrap” has all the right ingredients for the perfect murder mystery with a delightful twist. There are thrills and surprises around every corner. This captivating murder mystery opens on Friday, May 12, in the Archbold Theatre at the Syracuse Stage/SU Drama Complex, 820 E. Genesee St. Preview performances are on Wednesday, May 10, and Thursday, May 11.

Deathtrap poster

After the play’s Broadway debut in 1978, it received an Edgar Award (named after Edgar Allen Poe) for Best Play from the Mystery Writers of America. The show later earned a Tony nomination for Best Play and was called “an absolute knockout of suspense melodrama” by New York Times reviewer Walter Kerr. “Deathtrap” is the longest-running comedy-thriller on Broadway, with a four-year run of 1,793 performances at the Music Box Theatre.

Ira Levin is best known for successful thriller novels such as “Rosemary’s Baby” and “The Stepford Wives.” “Deathtrap” centers on a once successful playwright, Sidney Bruhl, who finds himself in desperate need of a hit. While brooding over the failure of his most recent plays, Bruhl receives a manuscript from a former student, a young man named Clifford. Instantly, Bruhl recognizes the play’s potential to be the hit he so badly needs and conspires with his wife, Myra, to “separate” the young writer from the as yet unpublished and unproduced work.

Considered a “play within a play,” “Deathtrap” mixes comedy with tongue-in-cheek references to the theatre. Levin also honors the tradition of the mystery genre with sly and subtle allusions to older thrillers like “Dial M for Murder” and “Sleuth.”

Director Paul Barnes, known for his past work on Syracuse Stage’s “The Miracle Worker,” “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas” and “Peter Pan,” is a longtime “Deathtrap” fan. Barnes saw the original Broadway production, and he hopes to evoke in Syracuse Stage audiences the same vicarious thrill he experienced.

“People love a good murder mystery because you get to experience danger without risking life or limb,” Barnes says. “I hope our work fulfills the thrills and chills Ira Levin so cleverly intended when he wrote the play. ‘Deathtrap’ provides audiences with that roller-coaster ride sense of risk and surprise, from which everyone emerges safe, sound and in one piece at journey’s end.”

“Deathtrap” is a thriller in two acts, with one set and five characters. Barnes intends to stay true to the show’s pre-computer, pre-cell phone, 1970s world. Barnes has directed other mysteries and says he enjoys the speculation they generate among audience members.

“It’s always interesting to eavesdrop on conversations and listen to who people thought had actually done the murder,” Barnes says. “Murder mysteries provide a great way for people to think or experience something they might not know about. It brings me satisfaction knowing that it gets people theorizing and comparing notes with one another.”

 “Deathtrap” was originally scheduled to close the 2016/17 Syracuse Stage season before the addition of “Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash” (June 7-25). Associate artistic director Kyle Bass says “Deathtrap” was included for this season because it is a play full of excitement and fun. “In bringing this kind of thrill to Syracuse Stage, ‘Deathtrap’ wraps up our subscription season on a high note,” he says.

Tickets are available at www.SyracuseStage.org, by phone at 315.443.3275 and in person at the Box Office.

  • Author

Joanna Penalva

  • Recent
  • Most Read
  • Related
  • Syracuse University Permanently Expels Theta Tau Chapter
    Saturday, April 21, 2018, By News Staff
  • Message from Steven Barnes, Chairman of the Board of Trustees
    Friday, April 20, 2018, By News Staff
  • What NY Towns Deserve Piece of $10 Million Grant?
    Friday, April 20, 2018, By Sawyer Kamman
  • Predicting the Future by Using the Past
    Friday, April 20, 2018, By Sawyer Kamman
  • Trump Shaking Up Typical Foreign Trade Tactics
    Friday, April 20, 2018, By Sawyer Kamman
  • Seven Syracuse Alumni Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 Lists
    Thursday, January 5, 2017, By John Boccacino
  • First Woman from Syracuse University Heads to Infantry Officer Course, Combat Training
    Monday, February 13, 2017, By Sean Kirst
  • Actor-singer Taye Diggs ’93 Returns to Campus for Coming Back Together Book Signing
    Tuesday, September 12, 2017, By Rob Enslin
  • Vice President Biden Honored with Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction
    Friday, January 13, 2017, By News Staff
  • Syracuse Views Spring 2017
    Monday, July 3, 2017, By Kathleen Haley
  • Smart, Sharply Funny ‘Other Desert Cities’ Tackles Art, Politics, Family Secrets
    Thursday, April 2, 2015, By News Staff
  • Record-Breaking Holiday Drive Raised Over $29,000 toward Fight against HIV and AIDS
    Thursday, January 15, 2015, By News Staff
  • Arthur Storch, Syracuse Stage Founding Producing Artistic Director, Former Chair of SU Department of Drama, Dies at 87
    Thursday, March 7, 2013, By News Staff
  • ‘White Christmas’ tied for third best-selling show at Syracuse Stage–19,000 tickets sold
    Thursday, January 17, 2013, By News Staff
  • ‘Hairspray’ Starts Thanksgiving Weekend at Syracuse Stage
    Friday, November 21, 2014, By News Staff

More In Arts & Culture

NEH Funding Supports Two Syracuse Projects

Two Syracuse University projects have received 2018 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) awards. Glenn Wright, director of Graduate School Programs, and Vivian May, director of the Humanities Center and professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, received funding to enhance doctoral training for humanities Ph.D.s in…

2017-18 Raymond Carver Reading Series Concludes with Author Julie Otsuka

Award-winning author Julie Otsuka is the final speaker in the 2017-18 Raymond Carver Reading Series. She will participate in a Q&A session at 3:45 p.m. and do an author reading at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 25, in Huntington Beard…

Anthony Veasna So Receives Soros Fellowship for New Americans

So joins 29 other new Soros Fellows, selected from 1,765 applicants this year.

‘Joy of Close Reading’ Conference Will Remember Prof. Hope Glidden

“The Joy of Close Reading in Classical, Medieval and Renaissance Studies” is the name of a conference that will be held Friday, April 27, in memory of Professor Hope Glidden, a distinguished scholar of early modern French literature and member…

Urban Video Project Presents Indoor Screening of Ben Russell’s feature-length film ‘Good Luck’

Light Work’s Urban Video Project (UVP) will present a special indoor screening of Ben Russell’s latest feature-length film, “Good Luck,” in the Everson Museum of Art’s Hosmer Auditorium on Thursday, April 19. Due to the 140-minute duration of the piece, the…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2018 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.