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    A Study Guide for Ira Levin's "Deathtrap"
    A Study Guide for Ira Levin's "Deathtrap"
    A Study Guide for Ira Levin's "Deathtrap"
    Ebook38 pages23 minutes

    A Study Guide for Ira Levin's "Deathtrap"

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Ira Levin's "Deathtrap", excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama for Students.This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateMay 15, 2018
    ISBN9781410393401
    A Study Guide for Ira Levin's "Deathtrap"

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      Book preview

      A Study Guide for Ira Levin's "Deathtrap" - Gale

      17

      Deathtrap

      Ira Levin

      1978

      Introduction

      Deathtrap is a two-act play from the pen of American playwright Ira Levin. The play, one of the longest-running comedy thrillers in Broadway history, opened at the Music Box Theatre on February 26, 1978. The final months of its four-year run, which ended on June 13, 1982, were at New York's Biltmore Theatre (now called the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre). At the same time, the play ran at London's Garrick Theatre from 1978 to 1981. In a footnote to theatrical history, Marian Seldes, who played the part of Myra Bruhl, did so for the play's entire New York run of 1,793 performances.

      Deathtrap earned a nomination for a Tony Award for Best Play for 1978 (losing to Da, by Irish playwright Hugh Leonard) and won the Edgar Allan Poe (Edgar) Award for best play in 1980. The source of the play's long-running appeal continues to be its fiendishly clever plot. The core of the play is the corrosive envy that appears to be felt by once-successful playwright Sidney Bruhl, whose career has hit the skids. Sidney, however, receives in the mail a manuscript copy of a play titled Deathtrap. According to Sidney, the play, written by a former student named Clifford Anderson, is a perfect example of a murder mystery/thriller, one that could become a smash hit and revive his, Sidney's, flagging career, if only he could knock off Clifford and purloin his play. What follows are a series of ingenious plot twists, subterfuges, and feints that mislead the audience about the true nature of the events taking place.

      A published edition of Deathtrap: A Thriller in Two Acts is available from Random House (1979). Also available is an edition from Dramatists Play Service, (1979), which includes not only the script but also production notes, including a set diagram, a prop inventory, set changes as the play proceeds, and an inventory of costumes for the play's five actors.

      Author Biography

      Levin Was Born In New York City On August 27, 1929, To Russian Immigrants Charles Levin And

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