8.2 /10 1 Votes
Written by Anthony Shaffer First performance 9 November 1970 Setting England Awards Edgar Award for Best Play | 4.1/5 Goodreads Original language English Playwright Anthony Shaffer Genres Mystery, Thriller | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Date premiered November 12, 1970 (1970-11-12) Place premiered Music Box Theatre, New York City Adaptations Sleuth (1972), Sleuth (2007) Similar Thriller plays, Other plays | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sleuth act one 2
Sleuth is a 1970 play written by Anthony Shaffer. The Broadway production received the Tony Award for Best Play, and Anthony Quayle and Keith Baxter received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance. The play was adapted for feature films in 1972, 2007 and 2014.
Contents
Plot summary
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 convinces him to stage a robbery of her jewellery, 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 game-playing is mirrored by the character of Wyke.
Production
Directed by Clifford Williams, Sleuth opened November 12, 1970, at the Music Box Theatre, where it ran for 1,222 performances. Anthony Quayle and Keith Baxter starred as Andrew Wyke and Milo Tindle. When Quayle left the production in 1972, Patrick Macnee (and later Paul Rogers) replaced him in the role of Wyke.
Accolades
Sleuth received the 1971 Tony Award for Best Play, and received nominations for Best Direction of a Play (Clifford Williams) and Best Lighting Design (William Ritman). Anthony Quayle and Keith Baxter received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance. Sleuth also received the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best Play.
Film adaptations
In 1972, Shaffer adapted his play for film, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, starring Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine. Another film adaptation was released in 2007 with a screenplay by Harold Pinter. The 2007 film was directed by Kenneth Branagh, starring Michael Caine and Jude Law as Milo Tindle, originally played by Caine in the 1972 version.
The play was also the basis for the film Tamanna. Whilst some of the interactions between the two men are similar, the film has roles for not just Wyke's wife, but also his second, younger wife, the Tindle character's object of desire, and the outcome for the characters is darker. The milieu is Pakistan's film industry, Lollywood in its dying days, and is used an allegory of wider issues. The dialogue, in Urdu, and the scenario are adapted in numerous ways for both Pakistani and Islamic culture.