Theater has a singular ability to whisk us into another world, and the John Hand Theater is the perfect intimate room for such a trip.
*** Mystery
In Firehouse Theater Company’s latest production, Anthony Shaffer’s “Sleuth,” the set at the Hand is practically a cast member. One behaves immediately upon entering the room, decked out with the clubby atmosphere of a British detective writer’s library: carved mahogany furniture and classical music on a Victrola, crystal Scotch decanters, antique board games and a well-oiled manual typewriter.
As the lights come down, the audience hears only the clack of that typewriter.
Combine this sound with the line, “I understand you want to marry my wife,” and the mood is set — and locked and loaded.
“Sleuth” is a worthy warhorse of a play about a cunning and potentially deadly match of wits between two men.
Considered the late Shaffer’s best work, this 1970 play was brought to life on film by Sir Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine in 1972.
Given the age of the work and myriad opportunities to see the film, the story’s revelations might be well-known to a theatergoing majority. The plot is a rollicking unraveling of revenge with alternating moments of frantic action and simmering strategy.
Andrew Wyke has invited Milo Tindle, a travel agent who has taken up with Wyke’s wife, to his home to offer him a chance at happiness with Marguerite — and part of their small fortune in jewels — if he agrees to take part in a caper to steal the insured jewels from a safe in the room.
Milo falls for it, and in the process finds himself playing into Andrew’s need to extract revenge at a humiliating price.
The interplay between the two men — in character and as actors — is zesty entertainment, beginning as an alpha display of intellectual bullying and building to a fight for the final upper hand.
As Andrew, Paul Page gets the tour de force role — the Olivier one — in “Sleuth,” playing the older, married man to Chris Bleau’s youngish cuckolder.
Page is a must-see British seether, his Andrew a man in a constant intellectual sneer whose imagination exceeds his reach.
Bleau, who recently appeared in “12 Angry Men” with Page at the John Hand, has a few focus problems as Milo, dropping his accent occasionally. But Bleau, who conjures Colin Firth in appearance and demeanor (even in his bounder’s cheap suit), proves a strong counterpoint to Page, especially as the plot reveals itself.
Page displays a truly cruel edge, humiliating his rival to the point of actual audience discomfort. He is seduced by his own story, and in his love for the game he is playing, we see him step closer to madness. It’s a role to be relished, and Page nearly loses himself as a man losing it.
He also steps on a few of Bleau’s lines, bringing the swordplay to an interestingly realistic, if distracting, level.
The stairway is the scene of a pivotal moment and is unfortunately not in the line of sight of a good 20 seats. But the joy is in Shaffer’s crackling dialogue — and Page and Bleau’s ability to bring it to life.
Angela Clemmons: 303-954-1516 or aclemmons@denverpost.com
“Sleuth”
Presented by Firehouse Theatre Company at the John Hand Theatre, 7653 East First Place (Lowry). Written by Anthony Shaffer. Directed by Rick Bernstein. Starring Paul Page and Chris Bleau. Through Saturday. 2 hours, 20 minutes. 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. $14-$17. 303-562-3232 or
