STAGE REVIEW : ‘Deathtrap’ Has All the Right Trappings : The Backstage Theatre and Company production of Ira Levin’s popular whodunit offers many clever turnarounds as well as crisp and amusing staging.

All those Agatha Christie mysteries have been feeling the heat for some time now--more and more, small local playhouses, especially community theaters, have been turning to Ira Levin’s “Deathtrap” when the whodunit urge strikes.

It’s not hard to see why: This murder mystery is clever but not too clever, funny but not too funny, with enough reversals and red herrings to satisfy most genre fans. “Deathtrap” may be the best thinking-person’s thriller for the middle class.

The play also can be a director’s joy--quick, reasonably graceful changes in tone and momentum, brightly interesting characters and a plot with both mayhem and camp. Director Jeffrey Ault certainly seems to recognize the possibilities; his staging at the tiny Backstage Theatre and Company is crisp and amusing.

At the story’s center are Sydney Bruhl (John Parker), a big-shot mystery writer nearing has-been territory, his frail, very nervous wife (Ellen Treanor), a young writer (Greg Izay) with apparent talent, and a supposed plan to murder the newcomer and steal his sure-fire manuscript, titled “Deathtrap.”

The play’s verve comes from its ability to cross up our expectations where these people are concerned and go against the grain. Even when you’re feeling manipulated by the plot devices, it’s hard not to smile at all the turnarounds.

The Backstage production is anchored by Parker; he may get annoyingly glib with Levin’s sometimes punishingly glib dialogue, but it’s all within character. Sydney’s witty, but he’s also an almost insufferable blowhard.

Both Treanor and Izay are also good. She gives the wife a sense of desperation without histrionics, and Izay is adept at playing a character whose surface calm hides a nasty heart.

The uncredited set is a disappointment, though. This is obviously a low-budget effort, and the ragtag furniture works against it. Sydney is not only a man of letters and violence, he’s one of taste and wealth--he’d just sniff at the looks of this stuff.

‘Deathtrap’

A Backstage Theatre and Company production of Ira Levin’s mystery. Directed by Jeffrey Ault. With John Parker, Ellen Treanor, Greg Izay, Jaye Wilson and Wayne Mayberry. Costumes by Pat Tompkins. Props by Scott Parrish. Plays Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. through Aug. 24 at 1599 Superior Ave., Suite B-2, Costa Mesa. Tickets: $10 to $12.50. (714) 646-0333.