I know this production is not of a movie BUT Sleuth HAS been filmed. So – with that rationalization in mind:
The McNeese University Bayou Players in Lake Charles, LA have put on a brilliant production of Anthony Shaffer’s classic black comedy mystery play – Sleuth.
To tell much about it would be to give away too much of the plot and Sleuth is just too delicious to spoil. So I will tread lightly.
The story is primarily about two men, Milo Tindle and Andrew Wyke, who meet at a secluded English manor to discuss a delicate personal matter involving a woman who is important to them both. The cat and mouse game that emerges is the fascinating matter of the evening.
I am a BIG fan of the movie with Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier, which I first saw at the theater when it came out in 1972. (Please do not bother with the truly awful 2007 remake DESPITE it starring Michael Caine in the role of his antagonist from the original). And given the limitations of a live play, and allowing for a few tech glitches which I am sure they will work out for the Saturday/Sunday performances, I would hold this live McNeese Bayou Players production favorably up to that award winning movie any day.
The acting was excellent. Michael Davis presents a chilling but funny caricature of a posh British snob, and Eric Thibodeaux was extremely convincing in his role as Milo Tindle, at turns both hapless and frightening. The supporting cast listed as Joseph Pressley and Milton Hebert do a superb job of facilitating the tantalizing mystery.
The manor drawing room set was, of course, brilliant, headed up by the ever resourceful Randy Partin who, I think, if given the task of building a working rocketship on stage could do so with a sheet of plyboard and a box of crayons. In this case, he has created a working English manor drawing room, complete with stairs leading to a second floor, and aided in ambiance by a desk built sometimes between 1906-1910, brought out of the LCLT storage room.
Sadly, the production only goes for three nights, one having already passed.
So RUN, do not settle for walking, to see the McNeese Bayou Players production of SLEUTH at the Lake Charles Little Theater at 813 Enterprise Blvd.
You can buy tickets there, call them at 433-7988 or purchase tickets online.
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