Greg Bond (left) as attorney Porter Milgrim, skeptically assessing his burnt-out playwright client played by Peter Fishburn (right). (Photo by Bruce Bloy)Performances of “Deathtrap,” Silver City Community Theatre's entertaining bid to divert audiences from the madness of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, opens Friday, November 30, 7:30 p.m., at the Little Theater of Silver High School, according to producer Hallie Harris.

In the play Sidney Bruhl (Silver City's Peter Fishburn) has reached the end of his muse and his wife's inheritance.

Sidney wrote comedic thrillers, just like “Deathtrap.” He says to his young protege: “It is a disease: thrilleritis malignis, the fevered pursuit of the one-set five character moneymaker.” The protege, Clifford, is the one that Sidney's wife Myra (Mary Ann Marlar) slyly suggests “disappearing."

Clifford (played by Thomas Leeper), who has just completed a smash-hit script, is admiring Sidney's weaponry mounted on his wall. (Silver City's Jack Ellis, set designer, and Chris Wellman, set builder, have made it a captivating wall.)

Clifford gets trapped in a pair of handcuffs and announces that he could actually be a character in a good thriller. Of course the audience already knows that he is a character in a good thriller.

Things don't run smoothly for poor Clifford. And the most unexpected outcomes lie in wait for Myra and Sidney as well.

Liz Mikols playing Helga Ten Dorp in a forensic trance, uncovering threats in Ira Levin's “Deathtrap.” (Photo by Bruce Bloy)Could it be that a nosy neighbor psychic (Liz Mikols), who specializes in solving murders in the most alarming fashion, can help the Bruhls? Or can she assist Clifford? Or neither?

If for different reasons the sagging playwright and the talented, weapon-bearing student can't finish “Deathtrap,” perhaps Sidney's lawyer, played by Greg Bond, can put the finishing touches on the affair? Or is that just an attorney's ego provoked by an overwhelming psychic?

Director Wendy Spurgeon has injected energy into this script of wit and intrigue. “This play was nominated for four Tony Awards in 1978,” Spurgeon notes. “Our cast has captured its appeal—suspense and humor that boils over for two hours.”

Tickets for performances on this Friday and next, December 7, as well as on Saturday, at 2 and 7:30 p.m., December 1 and 8, and on Sunday, at 2 p.m., December 2 and 9, may be bought at a 20 percent discount from Vicki's Eatery and Morning Star. Full-price tickets may also be purchased at the door.

For more information, visit the website here.