Sleuth - Lyric Theatre, Belfast

Andrew Wyke is a skilled manipulator and creator of suspense, both in real life and in his profession as a successful murder-mystery writer. In his world of dog-eared affluence and quirky humour, every situation is ripe for exploitation, every human being who crosses his path a potential character for one of his fiendish yarns. When a slick young businessman, the Jewish-Italian Milo Tindle, turns up at his house in the country, to do a transfer deal over Wyke's estranged wife Marguerite, he simply cannot resist the temptation to turn the situation to gleefully cruel advantage. Steadily, unblinkingly Anthony Shaffer unveils his plot and, like the dismantling of a Russian doll, costumes and masks emerge and are discarded, and over all the dubious fun and games a mischievous mechanical sailorboy laughs and laughs. For all their accomplishments and years of experience, John Hewitt and Dan Gordon are not quite the ideal casting as Wyke and Tindle respectively and on opening night one had the impression that director Caroline Fitzgerald could have done with a few more days in rehearsal to polish up their verbal fluency and quick-fire repartee. This is, after all, a play which relies more on clever word-play than on characterisation and which, these days, has a rather dated feel to it. Still, it is not difficult to enjoy Hewitt's bumbling discomfiture when Gordon's exuberant, over-the-top turning of the tables strips away the facade of Wyke's debonair, genteel existence to reveal a sordid layer of impotency, ruthlessness, deceit, racism and snobbery lurking beneath.

Runs at the Lyric until March 10th (box office tel: Belfast 90381081) and tours to The Market Place, Armagh (March 23rd and 24th) the Bardic Theatre, Donaghmore (March 28th) and The Ardhowen, Enniskillen (March 29th to 31st)