The Plot
The plot has to do with Andrew
Wyke, a writer of mystery stories,
who is visited one evening in his
country home in England by one
Milo Tindle who, it seems, wants to
marry Wyke's wife, a circumstance
to which Wyke is quite agreeable.
Wyke arranges for Milo to steal his
wife's jewelry so that Milo and she
can run off together, leaving Wyke
with the insurance money from the
jewels. The melodramatic events
that follow are sometimes exciting,
sometimes chilling, and always
entrancing.
Moreover, "Sleuth" manages to
be a parody of itself and its genre.
This it accomplishes primarily
through the character of Wyke,
who believes there should be more
romance and ingenuity in crime and
whose fictional creations become
part of him. All of which leads us
to the third level: playwright
Shaffer has also written a strong
character study, especially in the
case of Wyke.
The acting is a tour de force.
The three smaller roles are all
competently handled, but it is
Anthony Quayle as Wyke and Keith
Baxter as Milo who walk away with
all the honors. Both originated their
characters in London, where the
play first became a smash, and they
deserve more detailed praise than
the nature of their vehicle permits
me to write.
Clifford Williams' staging keeps
the pace fast, the characters
moving, and the tension building,
and the stately set which Carl Toms
has designed fits the mood, style,
and demands of the play perfectly.
There are some obvious, inescapable
contrivances in "Sleuth," but
what's important is that Mr.
Shaffer's first produced stage play
is witty, urbane, clever, deliciously
diabolical, devastatingly deceptive,
and not to be missed.
