(Above: Dueling playwrights, played by Dan Pegoda and Dave Arnold, scuffle over a script in the Not Ready for Retirement Players’ production of Deathtrap; photos by Paul Carter.)
By Randi Bjornstad
Deathtrap, written by playwright Ira Levin in 1978, has the distinction of being the “longest-running comedy-thriller on Broadway for a reason,” according to Chris Pinto, who is directing the play at the Wildish Community Theater from Aug. 4 through Aug. 13.
His introduction to the play goes on to say, “It is a truly twisted thriller that will leave you gasping.”
The basic premise is that Sidney Bruhl, a brilliant and once-lionized playwright, hasn’t been able to write a decent script for nearly 20 years and is about to give up altogether, when suddenly he receives in the mail a manuscript from a former student, asking for comment. Bruhl proclaims to his wife, Myra, that the script is brilliant — maybe even brilliant enough to kill for? — and he invites the student, Clifford Anderson, to come for a visit, ostensibly to get the older man’s critiques on how to improve it, but maybe for something really more nefarious.
Well, obviously there is a whole lot more to Deathtrap than that — twists and turns galore — and probably the best way to approach it is to sit in your seat, watch it, don’t try to figure too much out, and don’t be surprised by any plot twists that happen, because they are many.
In other words, as director Pinto puts it, “What you thought you knew is not what you thought.”
It’s a small cast — five characters — with the aforesaid Sidney Bruhl, his wife Myra, and the student Clifford Anderson, plus a next-door eccentric Dutch psychic named Helga ten Dorp and in the end, Porter Milgrim, Sidney Bruhl’s attorney. The play also is sleek, just five scenes portrayed in two acts before all the folderol-turned-mayhem comes to pass.
“It has many twists and turns, and you can laugh and you also can be horrified,” Pinto said cheerfully.
The actors include Dan Pegoda as Sidney, Storm Kennedy as Myra, David Arnold as Clifford, Jen Ferro as Helga, and Paul Rhoden as Porter.
Chris Pinto started the Not Ready for Retirement Players troupe, simply because they weren’t.
But maybe the most important plot twist of all here is that this play is performed by the Not Ready for Retirement Players, which Pinto started several years ago, could be NR4RP’s last — at least for awhile — because within the next three months Pinto plans to relocate permanently back to Hawaii, where he grew up.
“We’re all hoping that the company will continue,” Pinto said. “I am hoping to be the ‘producer from afar’ to keep things together and cover the costs, because we have an ensemble of actors here who work really well together and who do want to do this kind of theater.”
He’s heading for Hawaii for some of the same reasons he started the Not Ready for Retirement Players.
“I am 66, and I am retired. I am trying to figure out the rest of my life,” Pinto said. “Part of that plan was to buy a place where a caregiver can underneath if that is ever needed.”
Weathering the effects of the pandemic on performance everywhere — in fact, Deathtrap is the company’s first production since the pandemic shut down almost all stages early in 2020 — “has been three long years to think about what to do next,” Pinto said.
In all, with Deathtrap, the troupe has put on eight plays, starting with Heroes; followed by Putting It Together, a musical revue of Sondheim songs; Doubt: A Parable; Funny Money; My Happy Hour with Pegoda; Shrimp & Gritts; and Kalamazoo.
Deathtrap by the Not Ready for Retirement Players
When: 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 4-5 and 11-12; and 2 p.m. on Aug. 6 and 13
Where: Wildish Community Theater, 630 Main St., Springfield
Tickets: $20, except $15 for Super-Saver-Sunday on Aug. 6, available online at wildishtheater.com or by calling 541-868-0689
A local psychic, Helga ten Dorp visits the Bruhls with her visions of mayhem; actors, left to right, are Storm Kennedy, Jen Ferro, and Dan Pegoda, in Deathtrap.
