Opening March 7 at the Guthrie, “Sleuth,” by British playwright Anthony Shaffer, is a more traditional performance, but inspired by play – specifically a series of murder mystery games designed and hosted by legendary composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim.
Sondheim, renown for dozens of musicals including “West Side Story,” “Gypsy” and “Into the Woods,” was also hugely into mysteries and games, according to Barry Joseph, author of “Matching Minds with Sondheim: The Puzzles and Games of the Broadway Legend,” and host of a delightful podcast of the same name.
According to Joseph, Sondheim designed elaborate treasure hunts and murder mystery parties for his friends, created cryptic-style crosswords as the founding puzzle editor at New York Magazine, was an early adopter of games like “Myst” and once created a board game in honor of Leonard Bernstein’s 50th birthday.
In the 1960s, Sondheim moved into a townhouse in Midtown Manhattan “decorated with antique board games and beautifully designed puzzles,” Joseph said. “And he would invite his friends over, who were often from the theater world, to have dinner, have some drinks, and play games together.”
In 1965, Sondheim hosted an evening of “The Murder Game,” an updated parlor game. One of the attendees, British playwright Peter Shaffer, told his brother, Anthony, about it. Anthony later convinced Sondheim to replicate it on a visit to London. The experience inspired Anthony Shaffer to write “Sleuth,” which would go on to win the 1971 Tony Award for best play.
On its face, “Sleuth” is a thriller set in the English countryside about two men – one of whom can be seen as inspired by the real-life Sondheim – and a staged jewelry heist.
The play brings to life an experience designed by Sondheim “meant for being done in a parlor, being done in a home, being done in a small group of intimates,” Joseph said.
“It was able to reflect that side of Stephen Sondheim that most people didn’t know – that side that was able to create these very intimate, brilliant, dynamic and challenging experiences that would lead someone creative, like Anthony Shaffer, to say, ‘How can I use this as the material to create something that’d be compelling for an audience to watch?’”
Both forms of play – the games and puzzles form and the theatrical performances – are “about creating moments where you, the player, or you, the audience, can emotionally experience something that’s going to help you feel something in a new way,” Joseph said.
“We might have higher expectations for what we might experience at a theater than, say, playing a game of Monopoly, but I’ve seen games of Monopoly get more heated than anything I’ve ever seen in a Broadway theater.”
The ability to play is part of what distinguishes us as humans. AI is notoriously terrible at games: ChatGPT can’t figure out chess, and Claude can’t get the hang of Pokémon Red. Maybe it’s something about the imagination that makes playing something distinctively human, or perhaps it’s our capacity for joy.
These two shows, though different in style and aimed at different audiences, tap into both and ask us to play – and to think about plays – from a new perspective.