Saturday, October 27, 2007
A+E
Investigating ‘Sleuth’
Predictable cat-and-mouse show not worth catching
David de Vries in the Alliance Theatre’s “Sleuth”
CREDIT: Greg Mooney“SLEUTH”
Through Nov. 4
Alliance Theatre
$15–$45
404-733-5000
www.alliancetheatre.org
By Bert Osborne
Why bother remaking the fairly perfect 1972 movie thriller “Sleuth” unless you’re going to do something different with it? Reportedly, the forthcoming new movie version (adapted by Harold Pinter) has made substantial changes to the original Anthony Shaffer play, which presumably gives the remake a reason for being that’s greater than just the stunt casting of Michael Caine (who played the younger man in the first film and portrays the older man in the second).
If you caught Georgia Ensemble’s 2006 staging of “Sleuth,” or any one of countless other productions over the years—or even if you’ve only seen the movie—the inherent problem with the show is that it’s a calculated cat-and-mouse caper built on a series of elaborate twists and turns that aren’t nearly so shocking or ingenious the umpteenth time around. Most of us will already know everything that happens next in the plot. The basic thrill of the play is gone.
Director Kent Gash’s Alliance Theatre rendition resorts to its own stunt casting in the use of black actor Carl Cofield as Milo Tindle, a dashing rival who’s wooing the wife of egocentric novelist Andrew Wyke (played by the white David de Vries). But that’s all it is—a gimmick, with Gant essentially teasing us, showing the proverbial race card without ever actually playing it. The game in “Sleuth” is as much a class struggle as a battle of wits, but the purpose of adding a racial element to the mix is defeated when there’s nothing in Shaffer’s script to back it up.
As a result, Gant doesn’t finish or follow through with what he starts. Instead of casually mentioning that Milo’s part-Ethiopian (in addition to part-Italian and part-Jewish, as originally written), why not just make him black and go with it, refocusing and consolidating all of Andrew’s snide browbeating accordingly? After listening to Cofield’s vacillating British accent for a while, you can’t help wondering how well the conceit might’ve worked had Gant simply transplanted the story from its native England into a more racially sensitive American setting.
The show is briskly paced, if unevenly matched. The diabolical de Vries holds up his end of the game with a delectable relish, acting circles around the drab Cofield. In true Alliance fashion, Andrew’s country manor is spectacularly realized by designer Edward Haynes. On opening night, his set got entrance applause at the top of both acts. For the most part, though, we’ve seen it all before—which isn’t the highest praise for a “Sleuth” that seems to promise something else.
DULY NOTED:
Jeff Portell’s engaging performance as a malapropian mobster is the sole bright spot in Jewish Theatre of the South’s witless situation comedy “Comparing Books” (directed by Melanie Martin Long), about a supposedly sophisticated Manhattan family that can’t tell a mafioso from a literature professor. The son is an Ivy League student with delusions of Dickens’ David Copperfield, whose idea of making good on his gambling debts and being the “hero” of his own life is to drop out of school and become a bookie. The show continues through Nov. 4 at the company’s theater at Zaban Park facility at the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta. Tickets are $22, $26 and $30. 770-395-2654. www.jplay.org.
Joe Knezevich’s improbably gamey portrayal of the odious title villain proves to be the weakest link in artistic director Richard Garner’s otherwise slick and chilling Georgia Shakespeare production of “Richard III.” In a large supporting cast, Tess Malis Kincaid impresses most as the haunted (and haunting) queen mother. “Richard III” continues through Nov. 4 at the Conant Center for Performing Arts on the campus of Oglethorpe University. Tickets are $15–$40. 404-264-0020. www.gashakespeare.org.