Psychological thriller “Mindgame” keeps the audience guessing

'Mindgame' balances fear, fun Some ads for the Chamberlayne Actors Theatre current production of Anthony Horowitz's psychological thriller, "Mindgame," come with a PG-13 rating.

Rest assured, the ads were much gorier than anything that actually transpired onstage. One scene featured a bit of very unrealistic fake blood that sent one theatergoer home before the second act, but it is the implied violence and the mounting anticipation that makes this play too intense for young audiences.

The psychological effects are well balanced by moments of tension-relieving humor that director Michael Creamer uses to great effect. Horowitz has infused "Mindgame" with enough puns, word plays and other clues to keep the audience guessing, but he never reveals all.

Set in the English countryside in an asylum for the criminally insane, "Mindgame" is ostensibly the story of Styler, an author, who is seeking an interview with Easterman, one of the world's most fiendish serial killers. Easterman's kind of evil purportedly defied a modus operandi; he used various methods, but apparently tortured, slaughtered, and sometimes butchered and dined on his victims for the sheer fun of it.

The three characters in the Chamberlayne production are not always what they seem to be. Bill Brock, as the writer Styler, undergoes the most startling metamorphosis, from cocky, even arrogant author to the thing that lies inside when his deepest, darkest fantasies have been revealed.

Scott D. Foard's broad portrayal of the asylum's doctor in charge of the experimental and controversial technique of psychodrama is deliberately off kilter and somewhat maniacal. Jennifer Stanfield's role of Nurse Plimpton requires her to be, at the very least, a bit skittish, but Stanfield's unglued, coming-apart-at-the-seams depiction is, nevertheless, somewhat unnerving.

To say more would reveal some of the plot's twists, turns and surprises, only some of which Horowitz has provided clues for.

The plot is developed slowly -- and with plenty of clues -- in the first act, but the pace picks up in Act Two. Just for fun, there are a number of special effects that the viewer can occasionally catch in the process of execution. A portrait of the asylum's founder changes not just age, a la "The Picture of Dorian Gray," but also gender. A photo of a Labrador retriever suddenly appears to be that of a snarling wolf. A plant grows before our eyes, and a brick wall imperceptibly rises to cut off the view to the outside. These are eerie, but what's behind the door on the right becomes the big question of the evening.

Ordinarily, psychological thrillers can be terrifying or gory or downright irritating, but "Mindgame" strikes an agreeable balance between the tension of horror and comedic release.

Julinda Lewis is a teacher, dancer and writer who lives in eastern Henrico County. She can be contacted at .