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REVIEW: “Sleuth,” Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, through Oct. 3
“Sleuth” by Anthony Shaffer, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday, through Oct. 3, Robert S. Marx Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, 962 Mount Adams Circle, Cincinnati. (513) 421-3888.
Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park is celebrating its 50th season this year by reviving some of the most popular productions in its history.
First up is “Sleuth” by Anthony Shaffer, first produced in the 1983-84 season.
Shaffer, who died in 2001, had said that he based the character of mystery writer Andrew Wyke after his good friend Stephen Sondheim, who has an intense interest in games.
That interest is reflected in a sumptuous set with a floor like a chessboard and games set up on tables throughout. It’s to this lavish room that Wyke summons his wife’s lover, Milo Tindle.
But the purpose of the summons, at least initially, seems to not be vengeance or admonition, but rather a sort of a blessing. Indeed, the super-wealthy Wyke offers the nearly-destitute Milo Tindle the chance to earn, in a way, a bundle of money to keep the never-seen Marguerite in the lifestyle “to which she has become accustomed.”
But there are so many twists and turns in this plot to keep an audience guessing right up to the very end.
Under the direction of Michael Haney, the Playhouse’s associate artistic director, “Sleuth” is mostly taut and well-timed, marred only by a few instances (on opening night) of sputtering and stuttering from an actor who still seemed to struggle with his lines and a poor make-up job that undermines one of the scripts biggest surprises.
PS: Playwright Anthony Shaffer is the late twin brother of playwright Peter Shaffer, whose “Equus” opens the New Edgecliff Theatre’s season on Oct. 1.
PHOTO by Sandy Underwood: Munson Hicks as Andrew Wyke and Michael Gabriel Goodfriend as Milo Tindle in “Sleuth.”
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