The Deadly Game
Those whose dramatic taste runs to the delightfully macabre may wish to put on their theatrical to-do list the psychological thriller The Deadly Game, adapted by James Yaffe from a novella by Swiss author Friedrich Duerrenmatt, which is to open at The Stagecrafters on Friday, April 13. The action unfolds as a traveling American businessman, having run his car into a snowdrift during a fierce Alpine blizzard, gratefully accepts warm hospitality after trudging his way to a chalet up the road perched over a deep precipice. Little does he suspect that the initial encounter with his host, a genial, well-mannered older gentleman, will lead to a chain of events that will literally put his life on the line. The tension builds slowly and inexorably, as the battle of wits and wiles effectively blends horror and black humor with probing of deeper issues of human moral frailty.
Friedrich Duerrenmatt (1921-1990) was a master of macabre and darkly comic story-telling, where weighty moral questions always lurked just beneath the surface. Author of The Visit, which was also produced at The Stagecrafters (2007), Duerrenmatt has to his credit dozens of plays and novels, most often tales dealing with questions of crime, guilt, and justice. His story, Die Panne (The Breakdown, 1956), cleverly adapted by James Yaffe as The Deadly Game, was ideal material for a stage thriller which is probing, suspenseful, and weirdly funny. First produced on Broadway in 1960, The Deadly Game has seen numerous productions in theaters in this country and abroad.