When the play opens with the infamous “To be or not to be…” you start to think time is out of joint. Or maybe that you’ve just misremembered how Hamlet starts? You ever look at one of those maps of the United States where all the states have been shoved around into different spaces in the outline but it still mostly looks like the outline of the country even though everything is all discombobulated?
A feverish pandemic of Thrilleritis Malignus is sweeping through the Northern Virginia area as NextStop Theatre Company unloads Ira Levin’s Deathtrap onto their stage just in time for the tail-end of spooky season. Directed by Evan Hoffmann with eminence and experience, this comedic thriller delights audiences with laughs and screams as the play-within-a-play-within-a-play takes a chilling twist around the bend of darkness and deceit.
A lavish yet simultaneously foreboding set takes root in the play space of NextStop Theatre Company compliments of Scenic Designer JD Madsen.