REPERTORY REVIEW: ‘SLEUTH’ : Timeless Twists : Anthony Shaffer’s 20-year-old duel of wits keeps the audience guessing and entertained.

Anthony Shaffer’s “Sleuth” is about the kind of person who is--or becomes--so caught up in the strategy of a game that his original goal is lost.

Originally produced in London in 1970 and a subsequent Broadway and film hit, the play is currently being staged at the Cal Lutheran University Little Theater by the Xanadu Repertory Company.

The script for “Sleuth” is so filled with deception that only a churl would give away practically anything except the setting (an English manor, a few years ago) and the main characters. Combatant No. 1 is Andrew Wyke, a successful writer of detective fiction and the owner of the manor. We soon meet the second protagonist, Milo Tindle. A few years younger and rather less financially successful than Wyke, Tindle soon learns that Wyke has discovered that the two have something important in common.

From that point on, Wyke is intent on proving how clever he is, in a way that’s calculated to keep Tindle and the audience guessing--and with deadly consequences.

Twenty years after the play’s premiere, the main thing for Shaffer and the Xanadu Repertory Company to worry about is whether there is anyone left who doesn’t know what’s going on, and that those who have seen the play or film can keep from telegraphing the twists to those around them. On opening night last week, several rather noisy spoilsports couldn’t keep the play’s secrets to themselves.

Gene Bernath plays Wyke well enough, although he was having a bit of trouble remembering his lines on Friday and some audience members might be distracted by the actor’s physical resemblance to Carroll O’Connor. The real acting honors, though, belong to Kerry Kotter as Tindle, and Stanley Rushton as a dogged police inspector, who’s not amused by the mystery writer’s condescending attitude toward the professional constabulary.

Director Apollo Dukakis, a veteran of East Coast community theater making his Conejo Valley debut, keeps things moving smoothly onstage. Ron McAlpin’s comfortable set and Dan Wade’s lighting design add considerably to the overall effect.

On opening night, though, some overzealous backstage hand got too close to the wings, prominently displaying a large and moving human shadow in the manor’s bedroom doorway--not long after which a light in that same room was mysteriously doused. Was this another clue? Nope, just untoward sloppiness.

“Sleuth” has strong potential appeal to a wide audience. Even a youngster in the front row found the whole thing quite amusing, and in all the right places.

* WHERE AND WHEN: “Sleuth” is being produced in repertory with John Bishop’s “Musical Comedy Murders of 1940” at Cal Lutheran University Little Theater, 60 Olson Road in Thousand Oaks. Performances are this Saturday at 9 p.m.; Sunday at 8 p.m.; next Friday (July 13) at 8 p.m.; next Saturday (July 14) at 5 p.m.; Saturday, July 21 at 9 p.m.; and Sunday, July 22 at 7 p.m. Tickets for individual performances are $8 ($7 for students and minors). A combined ticket for “Sleuth” and “Musical Comedy Murders of 1940” is $14 ($12 for students and seniors). Call (805) 499- 3791 for further information.