Sleuth (play)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sleuth is a 1970 Tony Award-winning play by Anthony Shaffer.

The play is set in the Wiltshire, England manor house of Andrew Wyke, an immensely successful mystery writer. His home reflects Wyke's obsession with the inventions and deceptions of fiction and his fascination with games and game-playing. He lures his wife's lover, Milo Trindle, to the house and convinces him to stage a robbery of her jewelry, a proposal that 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 games-playing is mirrored by the character of Wyke.

The play's first production, starring Anthony Quayle and Keith Baxter, was at London's Ambassadors Theatre.

After four previews, the Broadway production, with Quayle and Baxter directed by Clifford Williams, opened on November 9, 1970 at the Majestic Theatre, where it ran for 1222 performances.

In 1972, Shaffer adapted his play for a critically and commercially successful film version directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and starring Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine.