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	• Sleuth: A Play (Playscript, 46) Anthony Shaffer Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd, 2009 - 93 pages average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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Anthony Shaffer's play Sleuth opened to rave reviews in London in February, 1970, with Anthony Quayle and Keith Baxter in the lead roles. In the film production by Palomar Pictures Production and Twentieth Century Fox the roles of Andrew Wyke and Milo Tindle were played by Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine.

Sleuth makes fascinating reading on several levels. The setting, an English country home, initially suggests a predictable English mystery. However, despite some elements of humor, the disguised rivalry between Wyke and Tindle gradually develops overtones of a psychological thriller. Like Tindle, the reader is uncertain whether Wyke is simply playing a game, or whether he has more serious intentions. Obsessive game playing and make believe appear to be metamorphosing into a dangerous reality, but who is the victim? The plot is highly unpredictable and it would be inappropriate to say more.

The dialogue is fast paced and witty. Sleuth is entertaining, suspenseful, and great fun.

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At once odd and familiar, a great recommendation.

The one extremely odd thing about this play was the fact that it was more of an entertainment than anything else, which is something that the old, stodgy theater would highly frown upon. Actually, though, it comes across as more of a breath of fresh air in a profession which is breathing its last in the public eye. The story twists and weaves almost too much to keep track of, but ostensibly this is the story of a young foreign gentleman in England who is visiting an older native. The older man has called him over to talk about a concern. The younger man (Milo)is getting married, and it turns out that the woman in question is the older man's ex-fiancee. What starts out as a polite inquiry into the Milo's finances suddenly turns ugly, as his elder intends to scare him. The two become embroiled in a psychological battle of scares and pranks up until the unexpected ending of the play. The key words here are Reversal of Expectation, taken almost to ludicrous extremes but always clear and understandable. The dialogue is quick, clever, and entertaining, and the characters are memorable. Best of all, this play can be performed easily on a budget and with a limited cast and crew; the script is that undemanding. The only thing you should consider bringing to the table here is an experienced director and two very talented actors.

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Sleuth has all the ingredients of a top-class thriller, which it undoubtedly is - a plot whose twists and turns are breathtakingly audacious and fiendishly cunning; suspense and excitement galore; and a brilliant parody of the Agatha Christie country-house thriller, mercilessly satirizing the genre at the same as using its technical devices to the full. It is a dramatic study of sexual conflict and jealousy between an older and a younger man; as well as a subtle psychological portrait of an inadequate and sexually-obsessed middle-aged man.

Sleuth was filmed by Joseph Mankiewicz, with Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine in the leading roles, and this edition is fully illustrated with stills from the film, for which Anthony Shaffer wrote the screenplay.

Anthony Shaffer has written several television and stage plays, including the West End success Murderer (also available from arion Boyars Publishers). He has also written many screenplays, including Play with a Gypsy, Hitchcock's Frenzy, The Wicker Man, and the Agatha Christie films Death on the Nile and Evil Under the Sun.

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