This weekend and the two following the talented Washington Street Players will be performing the thriller/comedy Deathtrap in Holliston’s upper town hall. The show starts at 7:30 pm on Friday and Saturday 4/12 and 13, 4/19 and 20, and 4/26 and 27.

Premiering in Boston at the Wilbur Theater, Deathtrap moved to Broadway where it enjoyed a four year run. Written by Ira Levin, it was nominated for four Tonys, including Best Play, and holds the record for the longest running comedy-thriller on Broadway. It was made into a 1982 film starring Michael Caine, Dylan Cannon and Christopher Reese. The WSP production is a treat for anyone who loves a murder mystery, and who doesn’t?

A middle aged writer sits at his manual typewriter, fresh our of ideas and frustrated to the max. Sydney Bruhl (Chris Erath) had been a successful playwright but has hit a creative wall and yearns for his glory days. His faithful wife Myra (Lorna Nogueira) shows her great love and support for him and assures him that he will get back on the right track soon. A script from one of Bruhl”s former students has come in the mail, and after barely remembering who the student was and sure he was a twerp, Bruhl reads the script and sees great potential. They decide to invite Clifford Anderson to their house to ostensibly offer to work on a collaboration with him. But as they stand in a room full of antique murder weapons, including a medieval spiked ball and chain, a diabolical idea forms in Bruhl’s mind. When Bruhl’s enthusiastic acolyte, Clifford Anderson (Billy Del Sesto) appears, Myra is terrified about her husband’s true motives. What follows is a major shocker.

The women steal the thunder in the first half of the play. Lorna Nogueira starkly projects her growing horror of her husband’s so-called fantasy of being willing to kill to be a success again. She is so convincing that the audience feels her hyperventilation and we all struggle to breathe right along with her. Her face dramatically changes as can only happen when one realizes one’s life partner is slowly slipping from being Dr. Jekyl into Mr. Hyde. Laura Steele, as a psychic who is renting nearby, makes a star turn as a gypsy like character. She bursts in, begging candles for the ensuing storm, but her real reason for being there is that she feels “pain, great pain” emanating from the house. Her spot-on Eastern European accent, chopped English, wide gestures, head scarf and exotic clothes bring instant dread with her prognostications. Her wild eyed expressions and eerie appearance in the storm bring chills.

The men really bring out their acting chops in the second act. Since this is a five person play, and one part, that of the lawyer Porter Milgrim (Bob Amici) is relatively small, Chris Erath and Billy Del Sesto have the lion’s share of the dialogue, and carry the plot through its many twists and turns with tremendous precision and aplomb. Chris shows a great range of emotions as he reveals his true greed and fury when something quite unexpected happens. Billy transforms quite believably from worshipful student to conniving conspirator. Their faces turn cruel before our very eyes. Their possible gay relationship is hinted at and acted out with a dark undercurrent, until the unthinkable happens. What part of this play is comedy? You will have to come and see it for yourself. This reviewer will take the secret to her grave.