The warning is in the name: “Deathtrap.” The Garage Door Theater is presenting the 1978 play, authored by Ira Levin and directed by Cindy Kennedy, that is intended for adult audiences and that features some blood.
“It’s looking at people doing extreme things for what they want,” Kennedy said. “And so, there has to be a little blood, because it’s really hard to stab and garrote them without being a little bloody. It’s not massively graphic, but it is there.”
Despite drawing the first blood that the Garage Door Theater has seen in years if not ever, the murder mystery is not just guts and gore.
“It’s just got everything going for it,” said Randy Killham, one of the five players on stage. “It’s a murder mystery, which is a great whodunit, and the cat-andmouse games at play in it are so rich, but it’s got some humor to it, too. Hopefully people don’t figure out too much too fast, because that’s really the sweet spot of the play for me.”
With a cast so small who love working with the director, “Deathtrap” has provided an opportunity for the cast and crew to build on their foundation of past plays together to create a different kind of world for the local theatergoers.
“What’s wonderful about working with people that you know, like and trust, is that you … can build on that, and it’s so much easier to … pull a story together when you have that,” said Justine Scott, who plays Myra.
Sidney Bruhl, played by Anthony Caranna, is a mature, famous but struggling playwright in possession of a promising script.
“This is perhaps the most challenging role that I have undertaken yet with this theater,” he said. “It is the largest role, it has the most dialog, and the character is truly the most developed and somewhat diabolical of any of the characters I’ve played on this stage.”
His devoted wife Myra is trying to support her husband, even when his approach to his work frightens her.
“She is a sweet person,” Scott said of her character, later describing her as “the least egotistical character I’ve ever played” and “a sympathetic character.”
Clifford Anderson, brought to life by Jeff Neyman, is Bruhl’s student and an aspiring playwright himself who created the play Sidney covets.
Neyman, who is the newest to the Garage Door Theater, loves the challenge of the part as well as the cast he gets to play against.
“This is such a good group,” he said. “I could not have asked for better people to share the stage with.”
Helga ten Dorp, the psychic played by Kyndal Brown, provides some of the play’s comedic relief.
“Helga ten Dorp is the weirdo who doesn’t make sense and comes in at random times,” Brown said. “That’s her. She shows up when you don’t want her to and then just disappears for a little while.”
Porter Milgrim, the lawyer portrayed by Killham, plays a key role by pushing all of the buttons of suspicion that set the wheels of the deathtrap warming up.
“He sets Sidney to being suspicious of Cliff,” Killham said. “He’s kind of a dopey little character, but it’s a great little part.”
Kennedy is proud of the whole team, on stage and behind the scenes, working together to produce theater in Pilot Point.
“We have built up a good group of people who are [involved],” she said. “We see new people We see people taking on new roles. We see people who have been around a long time, but it is a very supportive group of people.”
As for the play itself, Neyman says “come prepared.”
“It will help set that
Halloween vibe a couple of weeks early,” he said.
