Olney Theatre Center to Present SLEUTH, 6/13-7/8

Olney Theatre Center announces the opening of the mystery thriller, Sleuth, and welcomes a special exhibit from the National Museum of Crime & Punishment. Sleuth will be produced on the Olney Theatre Center's Mainstage from June 13 to July 8, 2012.

Sleuth, by playwright Anthony Shaffer, takes the audience into an electrifying and maniacal game of wits played between two men. When an older wealthy mystery writer invites his wife's lover to his elegant and isolated country estate, an intricate series of events and twists unfold, leaving the audience to decipher the outcome of this puzzle. Who will come out as victor, or, is this a zero-sum game for its players?

This production is Jim Petosa's last as Artistic Director of Olney Theatre Center. He directs lead actors Bob Ari and Jeffries Thaiss. Ari and Thaiss return to the Mainstage after last performing opposite each other in the 2011 season's production of Witness for the Prosecution.

Ari has established his successful career in the Broadway productions of Frost/Nixon, The Constant Wife, Bells Are Ringing, and Laughter on the 23rd Floor as well as in Off-Broadway productions, film, television and numerous regional Theater Productions. Thaiss, a frequent collaborator with Petosa, has been in over twenty Olney Theatre Center productions, including Dinner with Friends, Trumpery, The Glass Menagerie, Is He Dead?, The Underpants, The Mousetrap, Democracy, 13 Rue de L'Amour, Enemy of the People, Hedda Gabler, The Heiress, Saint Joan, Carousel, Piaf, Anna Karenina, Monster, Candida, She Loves Me, and Holiday.

"Sleuth is a complex psychological thriller that mixes wit and menace with compelling theatricality" says Petosa.

In conjunction with the production, The National Museum of Crime & Punishment will have an exhibit displayed in the main lobby throughout the entire run of Sleuth.

Tickets for Sleuth start at $26; please contact the Olney Theatre Center Box Office at (301) 924-3400 to make reservations.