Loading credits…
Painter Norman Bartholomew draws Sergeant Stenning into a murder-themed game at his Dorset home, using staged scenarios to deflect suspicion while concealing his plan to kill his wife, Elizabeth. When Elizabeth discovers his affair and fantasies, their contest of wits turns dangerous.
The play is set in the Wiltshire manor house of Andrew Wyke, an immensely successful mystery writer. Wyke's home reflects his obsession with the inventions and deceptions of fiction and his fascination with games and game-playing. He lures his wife's lover Milo Tindle to the house and persuades him to stage a robbery of her jewellery. This proposal sets off a chain of events that leaves the audience trying to decipher where Wyke's imagination ends and reality begins. Shaffer said the play was partially inspired by one of his friends, composer Stephen Sondheim, whose intense interest in game-playing is mirrored by the character of Wyke, and by mystery writer John Dickson Carr, whose stories featured complex plots and seemingly "impossible" crimes.
A country-house party gathers eccentric guests, each with a motive to kill the blackmailing Andreas Capodistriou. After the apparent murder, the second act reveals that the guests are actors hired for a role-playing mystery by the house’s owner, who is himself found to be the murdered man’s theatrical agent. Inspector Bowden must untangle the actors’ concealed relationships and identify the killer.
Painter Norman Bartholomew draws Sergeant Stenning into a murder-themed game at his Dorset home, using staged scenarios to deflect suspicion while concealing his plan to kill his wife, Elizabeth. When Elizabeth discovers his affair and fantasies, their contest of wits turns dangerous.
The play is set in the Wiltshire manor house of Andrew Wyke, an immensely successful mystery writer. Wyke's home reflects his obsession with the inventions and deceptions of fiction and his fascination with games and game-playing. He lures his wife's lover Milo Tindle to the house and persuades him to stage a robbery of her jewellery. This proposal sets off a chain of events that leaves the audience trying to decipher where Wyke's imagination ends and reality begins. Shaffer said the play was partially inspired by one of his friends, composer Stephen Sondheim, whose intense interest in game-playing is mirrored by the character of Wyke, and by mystery writer John Dickson Carr, whose stories featured complex plots and seemingly "impossible" crimes.
A country-house party gathers eccentric guests, each with a motive to kill the blackmailing Andreas Capodistriou. After the apparent murder, the second act reveals that the guests are actors hired for a role-playing mystery by the house’s owner, who is himself found to be the murdered man’s theatrical agent. Inspector Bowden must untangle the actors’ concealed relationships and identify the killer.