Anthony Shaffer’s Tony Award winning Sleuth is to be adapted by Murphy Ra Entertainment, You Game takes the male role of Milo Tindle and shifts the character to become Bella Lanson, an actress. The swap will create added challenges to the older character of Jack Guest (previously Andrew Wyke) on new levels of gender and patriarchy, on top of the twisty game play the original script is so famous for.
An immensely successful screenwriter lures his wife’s lover to the house and convinces her to stage a robbery of her jewellery; setting off a chain of events that leaves the audience trying to decipher what is true, and what is fiction for the sake of the game.
Sam Ra of Murphy Ra Entertainment said, “We loved the wordplay and action of the original and the great history and provenance. Anthony Shaffer was an extraordinary writer and we are grateful to have the opportunity to adapt this play and reboot it for a modern audience while retaining its legendary intrigue and suspense. I think one of the major differences with changing one of the leads to a woman is that Bella is empowered to challenge the misogyny of Jack throughout You Game. It is impossible for a discussion of sex and money between a man and a woman not to be read as political in 2019.”
Murphy Ra is a film, tv, theatre, and commercial production company formed 2018. Their first short film production The Taping was in the official selection at the London City Film Awards, a Semi Finalist at the Los Angeles Film Awards and winner Best Ensemble, Honorable Mention Dark Comedy and Best Actor in an Indie Film.
Anthony Shaffer was an English playwright, screenwriter, novelist. His other major works include screenplays for the Hitchcock thriller Frenzy, the British cult horror The Wicker Man, and Agatha Christie mysteries Death on the Nile and Evil Under the Sun. He was the identical twin brother of writer and dramatist Peter Shaffer.
Shaffer’s original was first staged in the UK in 1970, before transferring to New York later that year, where it ran for 1,222 performances. It won best play at the Tony awards 1971, alongside numerous other accolades. In 1972, Shaffer adapted his play for film, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, starring Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine.
You Game is at The RADA Studio Theatre 26th November – 14th December 2019.
