Review: Village Theater’s Sleuth isn’t very thrilling.

M.J. Sieber and David Pichette in Village Theater's production of Anthony Shaffer's "Sleuth". Photo by Jay Koh.

Review: Sleuth by Anthony Shaffer. Directed by Martin Charnin. With David Pichette, M.J. Sieber, Oliver Joel, Morrison Dayner, Randy Richard Guss. Now through February 27 at Village Theater in Issaquah and March 4-27 at the Everett Performing Arts Center in Everett, WA.

Anthony Shaffer’s Sleuth, the latest production at Issaquah’s Village Theater, is anything but a thrilling, exciting show. Instead of being titillating and leaving me on the edge of me seat, I was thoroughly bored out of my mind by this uninspired rendition. It was a surprisingly disappointing evening.

According to the official description, “Wealthy mystery novelist Andrew Wyke invites young Milo Tindle to his elegant, isolated country house to settle a bit of unpleasant business; Milo is having an affair with Andrew’s wife. What begins as a bizarre cat and mouse game of robbery spirals into a complex duel of wits and deception. Packed with thrills, and twists and turns that continue to tip the scale, this Tony Award-winning puzzle will keep you guessing up to the very deadly end!” Unfortunately, this description is nothing more than an elaborate work of fiction.

In reality, the production was painfully paced and filled with an enormous amount of useless filler. Normally, music is necessary to enhance feelings of excitement, anticipation and shock during a thriller. The noticeable lack of music made the production drag on to the point of tedium. When a somewhat exciting plot twist did finally happen, I was already so detached from the play that the twist had little to no impact.

For the most part, the acting was decent, aside from the brief moments when the entire cast engaged in chewing the scenery. For a small venue such as the Village Theater, overacting is unnecessary and actually serves to disrupt the natural flow of the plot. The greatest disappointment here was the ridiculously small cast, and a plot that revolved too heavily on mind games rather than actual interesting events. In fact, ‘plot twist’ is hardly an accurate description. Every single “shocking twist” could be seen miles away. It’s almost an insult to think that the obviously twists and turns would actually surprise anyone in the audience.

Overall, Sleuth is a mighty disappointment. Hopefully the Village Theatre will select better productions in the future; plays that are more action packed and that rely on larger casts, since the actors, not the plot, are the true driving force of any production. Sleuth simply missed the mark.