The Mantrap
By Robert Thomas, translated and freely adapted by Sean Aita
Theatre Royal Nottingham
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Anyone thinking of buying a ticket for the final play in the 2026 Colin McIntyre Classic Thriller Season must have wondered how The Mantrap qualifies as a classic.
Written by the late French playwright and director Robert Thomas, it started off as Piège Pour un Homme Seul, translated as Trap for a Single Man. But even after Alfred Hitchcock bought the rights, it still didn’t become popular with the public.
A version translated by Lucienne Hill and John Sutro, Trap for a Lonely Man, was published in 2002 but has been reviewed only once by the BTG.
Now there’s a new version, adapted and translated by Sean Aita. There’s little doubt that in future The Mantrap will come to be regarded as a classic.
Pavan Maru (The Man) and Susan Earnshaw (Rev Susan Green). Above: Pavan Maru (The Man) and John Goodrum (The Inspector)
The play features The Man, otherwise known as Daniel, appearing distraught because his wife of seven months, Elizabeth, referred to in the programme as The Woman, has disappeared. They had an argument but ten days later, after hearing nothing from her, he calls in the police.
The local vicar Rev Susan Green turns up and says Elizabeth has been staying at her place and has been persuaded to return to the couple’s rented cottage on the Cornish coast.
But when she comes back The Man swears the woman isn’t his wife and is an imposter. Who’s telling the truth? Is she a fraud who’s trying to get hold of The Man’s inheritance? Or has The Man who has a history of mental health issues had a mental breakdown and can’t remember who The Woman is?
The Mantrap has more twists than a helter-skelter. The first play in the Classic Thriller Season, Brian Clemens and Dennis Spooner’s Anybody for Murder, kept most people guessing about the outcome. But The Mantrap is brilliantly plotted and I doubt whether anyone will get the end correct.
Making his first appearance of the season, Pavan Maru gives a thrilling performance as The Man. He’s totally credible as the merciful husband desperate to get his wife back. He becomes increasingly frustrated as there are doubts about his sanity and it appears there’s a conspiracy to prevent the truth coming out.
Susan Earnshaw (Rev Green) and Sarah Wynne Kordas (The Woman)
Sarah Wynne Kordas has had a successful season and is the only actor to have appeared in all three plays. She gave a neat interpretation of Suzy, the lover with a habit of coming back from the dead, in Anybody for Murder and she gave a stunning performance as Catherine in John Goodrum’s adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Nightmare Room. In The Mantrap she gives the impression of being concerned about her husband’s health although you’re never really convinced there isn’t something nefarious going on in the background.
Goodrum, cunning conniver Max in Anybody for Murder, shows his versatility as The Inspector, determined to discover what really happened between The Man and The Woman yet keeping an open mind about the outcome.
There’s a charming performance by Susan Earnshaw as Rev Green. Is she merely performing her pastoral duties or could she be part of the conspiracy, as The Man suggests?
Juliette Strobel has a charming cameo as The Visitor, a cannabis-smoking hippy who allegedly saw The Man with his real wife. Or is she saying that only to get money out of The Man?
Director Karen Henson ensures there’s maximum tension and mystery in The Mantrap which clearly deserves its designation as a classic thriller.
* This review originally appeared on the British Theatre Guide website
