Deathtrap by Ira Levin

Author:Ira Levin [Levin, Ira]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Plays, Drama, Thriller, Suspense, Crime
ISBN: 0394507274
Publisher: Riddler
Published: 1978-11-17T18:30:00+00:00

ACT: TWO

Scene One:

Two Weeks Later, Morning.

When the curtain rises, Clifford is hard at work and Sidney isn 't. They sit facing each other across a handsome old partners' desk, Sidney at its right side, Clifford at its left. (The desk from Act One is gone.) The draperies are open to bright morning sunlight, Clifford, typing away like sixty on an old black Smith-Corona, is in chinos, a shirt, and boots. Sidney, lolling in his chair and feigning unconcern, is in his cardigan and another turtleneck. There's a sheet of paper in “Zenobia, " but it's probably blank.

God, how Clifford types! On and on, speech after speech. Occasionally he backtracks to X out a few words; occasionally he pauses for an instant of intense thought. But then it's on and on, fast and expert and clattering. Sidney finds it harder and harder to hide his irritation. He squirms, frets, grits his teeth. Eventually he pecks out a word, mouthing the letters— s-h-i-t—and sits back and glares at it.

Clifford whips out the finished page, scans it, puts it down on a Manila folder beside him and begins revising with a pen.

Sidney: That must have been quite a welfare office.

Clifford: It was. Everyone had a poignant story. They’re creating the play of their own accord.

Sidney: No notes? No outline?

Clifford: This isn’t a thriller, Sidney. It’s not dependent on intricate plotting and contrived theatrics. These are real people. All I’m doing is bringing them on and letting them spill out their dreams and frustrations, their anger at .the bureaucracy.

Sidney: Joe Papp will have a messenger at the door any minute.

Clifford: I was thinking of him as a possible producer. Do you know him?

Sidney: Slightly. Let me see a few pages.

Clifford: Sure, if you’d like to. But I’d really rather wait till the draft is done—give you the whole thing in one glorious bundle. Would you mind?

Sidney: Of course not. What’s another hour or so?

Clifford: (Putting a fresh sheet of paper into his typewriter) It’s going to take three or four weeks, I think.

Sidney: At the rate you’re going you’ll have a trilogy by then.

Clifford: (Looks sympathetically at him) Nothing doing?

Sidney: I’m thinking . . .

Clifford: Why don’t you invite her over? Ten Dorp. Talking with her might spark something.

Sidney: Do you think we should risk having her on the premises?

Clifford: Maybe not when the moon is full, but any other time, why not? Look at the egg she laid on the Griffin show.

Sidney: Well, she got rattled by Peter Hurkos when he described all her husbands in such detail.

Clifford: Oh, Belle Forrester called before you came down. (Resumes typing) Wanted to know if she could bring over a casserole or come sew a button. I told her we were managing just fine.

(The doorbell chimes, Clifford starts to rise but Sidney puts up a hand)

Sidney: Don’t. We don’t want to break the flow, do we? (He heads for the foyer, Clifford resumes typing. Sidney opens the front door, Porter Milgrim is there, a man of

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