Acadia’s `Sleuth’ production both fun, frightening

With “Sleuth,” the opening show of Acadia Repertory Theatre’s season, director Ken Stack has gone right for the jugular of summer theatergoing audiences: the detective story. You may have seen the Tony Award-winning two-man show during its long run on Broadway in the 1970s, or the 1972 film with Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier, or even the 1982 gender-reversed production.

But if you haven’t seen “Sleuth,” then you don’t want to be given any clues to the whole diabolical mess now. In fact, very little can be reasonably revealed about the twisted plot of the thriller-drama without destroying both the thrill and the drama.

But, alas, one terribly important bit of information has, of necessity, already been leaked: there are only two actors in the play, even though more are cunningly listed in the program.

That’s writer Anthony Shaffer for you. Disguise. Deception. Double-dealing. Just as in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Frenzy,” for which Shaffer wrote the screenplay, the tension is high, and the action specializes in surprise.

The scene is set in Wilkshire, Engand, in the country home of the eccentric, detective novelist Andrew Wyke. Wyke, a crackerjack at board games, mind games and power plays, engages his wife’s lover, Milo Tindle, in a scheme to defraud an insurance agency.

From there, the games swirl into simple word play and downright diabolical deceit. These are male rivals, after all, outwitting one another in the name of ownership and love. They move women around like pieces on a chessboard, and jab at each other like wild dogs. Yet their true game pieces — outrageous costumes, impotent guns, wily riddles and sneaky whispers — are all rather silly. Of course, the play ends up being fun and frightening in that good ol’ whodunit way, but it’s hardly the classic chicanery.

Veteran Acadia Rep actor Eugene J. Tierney does some of his finest work as the malevolent Wyke. Tierney has grown a woolly beard and a portly middle for the role of the arrogant novelist who gets a ghastly charge out of creating plots as twisted as his designing mind. Tierney shows the smugness of this puzzler, as well as how his over-indulgence has led to boredom, addiction, and destruction. You want alternately to applaud Wyke for his mastery, and spank him for his childishness, and Tierney yanks you back and forth between the two. As his pseudo-accomplice Tindle, George Hamrah turns a few tricks of his own. His character is gullible when necessary, stupid when required, and at least as scummy as his cohort through it all. For a performer whose responsibilities have primarily been offstage (Hamrah is, by trade, a stage manager), Hamrah does a fine job onstage — particularly with the physical gags.

Stack has upheld the tradition of decent detective-story fare at Acadia Rep with this show. The story moves along briskly so that the two hours-plus pass almost without a notice. In addition, Stack has adeptly built a country home set, decorated with tools of the sleuthing trade.

Costumes by Karen Malm are straightforward and elegant, both of which suit the time and place of the story.

“Sleuth” will be performed 8:15 p.m. through July 10, and 2 p.m. July 11 at Acadia Repertory Theatre in Somesville. The show will run again Sept. 22-Oct. 3. For tickets, call 244-7260.