Review: Kanata Theatre Launches its 2025-2026 Season with DEATHTRAP

Kanata Theatre launched its 2025-2026 season with murder most foul. Deathtrap, written by Ira Levin and directed by Michael Gareau, is a thrilling suspense, with plenty of twist and turns that will keep the audience guessing who the play's villain truly is.

The story begins with washed up playwright, Sidney Bruhl (Tim Mabey), lamenting that Clifford Anderson (Jesse Lalonde), an attendee of one of his writing workshops, has come up with what is certain to be a Broadway hit. Sidney fantasizes about murdering Clifford and taking credit for his play, entitled Deathtrap. Sidney's wife, Myra (Chrissy Hollands) is at first aghast, but then wonders if her husband is truly capable of performing such an act of violence in real life. Could he actually pull off a murder as easily as he writes them in his plays?

Levin is no stranger to crafting suspense stories; he is also the author of Rosemary's Baby and The Stepford Wives. Deathtrap takes some unexpected turns that keeps the audience engaged, even if the initial build up is a little slow.

The stage design by David Magladry is as wonderful as I’ve come to expect from Kanata Theatre. It is elaborate, with many details adding to its authenticity, and the design is perfectly aligned with the script. Likewise, the costumes designed by Maxine Ball suit the late 1970s time frame in which the story is set.

Scene changes are punctuated by virtual theatre posters of Sidney's former hits projected onto the stage’s side panels, which added a nice design element. However, the accompanying musical interlude was a jarring cacophony of typewriter keys which quickly became grating.

Performances were fairly strong, and the actors had good chemistry. The psychic next door neighbour, Helga ten Dorp (Jenny Pfitzer) is intentionally exaggerated to balance the suspense with comedy. Sidney's lawyer, Porter Milgram (Robert Johnstone) had a small, but well played role and I especially enjoyed Hollands nuanced performance.