Sleuth - The Ultimate Game!

The surname Shaffer makes you contort your face and think long and hard....then you remember, Equus, Amadeus and The Royal Hunt of the Sun.

Only that was Peter, twin number one, and Anthony Shaffer was the other literary genius behind the adaptations of Murder on the Orient Express, Sommersby and that cult movie classic, The Wicker Man as well as the play, Sleuth, last night's offering at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.

Sometimes when you are watching such whodunnits you do wonder what type of a mind it takes to produce such twisted plots and equally twisted characters!

And, in this case, it is hardly surprising that Sleuth ran for four and a half years on Broadway and eight and a half in the West End following its completion in 1969.

And, like a body preserved in arsenic, it still maintains a freshness for 2016 audiences despite being nearly half a century old.

Miles Richardson as Andrew Wyke is superbly competent and worthy of every inch of his 24-line programme biography!

His characterisation of this manipulative, twisted, nasty piece of work was seamless, with beautiful interludes, throw away lines, light and shade; a masterclass in performance.

The ultimate game of cat-and-mouse is played out in a cosy English country house owned by celebrated mystery writer, Wyke. Invited guest Milo Tindle, a young rival who shares not only Wyke's love of the game but also his wife, has come to lay claim. Revenge is devised and murders plotted as the two plan the ultimate whodunnit.

Intricate and clever, it somehow leads you to the edge of the cliff but keeps pulling you back with suspense, false drops and more suspense.

In writing it Shaffer must have continually asked himself: '.....what will they (the audience) expect?' As soon as he had the answer he then changed it, duping the masses into believing that they knew the outcome, only most didn't. That's why it went on to win a Tony Award.

James Alexandrou as Milo Tindle was a beautiful foil for Wyke and, between the two, they held and entertained the audience for two hours with thrills, spills, comical moments and a nail biting finish. As always the set was brilliantly Playhouse, embracing the traditional and the digital modern; excellent.

When Sleuth came to Broadway, the New York Times commented: "It is good, neat, clean and bloody fun, and I most cordially recommend it."

There's a Broadway in Horsforth and I know someone called Tony. Who am I to disagree on a grey West Yorkshire day?

West Yorkshire Playhouse
Until October 15th