Most suspenseful play you've seen? - Page 2

[sinister teashop]

Posted: 4/27/23 at 12:27pm

Updated On: 4/27/23 at 12:27 PM

[Wee Thomas2]

Posted: 4/27/23 at 1:00pm

I can only nod my head in agreement with Pillowman (my first McDonagh exposure) and Topdog/Underdog

I'm not sure How I Learned to Drive was "suspenseful" per se, but it certainly had me uncomfortably squirming in my seat!

[Lot666]

Posted: 4/27/23 at 1:43pm

1984 at The Hudson Theatre. Near the end, when all of the walls flew out and revealed the towering, blindingly bright Ministry of Love, and they brought out the rat cage. 

[verywellthensigh]

Posted: 4/27/23 at 1:53pm

Even the worst, most amateur-hour productions of Hamlet still hold one's interest simply because the suspense is so well-structured. 

[jagman1062]

Posted: 4/27/23 at 4:32pm

Dollypop said: "WAIT UNTIL DARK ( the original production. It lost something in the Tarantino revival)"

I wish I had seen the original, that Tarantino revival had me laughing out loud. 

In addition to Deathtrap, Voices in the Dark - I thought I was prepared for anything unexpected, but I was wrong!

Also, Shining City - that final scene was, well, haunting.

[Mr. Broadway3]

Posted: 4/27/23 at 4:57pm

Coram Boy

[MidWestTheater]

Posted: 4/27/23 at 5:34pm

Bug 

A production a few years ago at Steppenwolf with Carrie Coon and Namir Smallwood, the building tension was unlike anything I had seen on any stage.

[lily carver]

Posted: 4/28/23 at 1:39am

Deathtrap & The Shining City.

[TheSeafarer]

Posted: 4/29/23 at 9:01pm

I'm a big fan of mystery/thriller plays and was fortunate to see many of them during their heyday in the 1970's on Broadway. There have been a few decent ones in the last decade. Hoping that the Grey House and the Broadway production of the Mousetraps will start a resurgence of this classic genre. 

Here are some of my all-time favorites. 

Deathrap

Corpse

An Inspector Calls

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes and the Crucifer of Blood

Sleuth

Dracula

The Seafarer

Mauritius

Small Engine Repair

Updated On: 4/29/23 at 09:01 PM

[FosseTharp]

Posted: 4/29/23 at 9:35pm

The Innocents 

The Pillowman

Let the Right One In. 

[Hyde Park Hildy]

Posted: 4/30/23 at 12:30am

A production of The Woman in Black that played here in Chicago a few years ago was wonderfully creepy.

I guess I'd also have to say Death Trap, but I saw it so long ago that I have only vague memories of it.

[The Other One]

Posted: 4/30/23 at 8:00am

Jarethan said: "The Pillowman was an incredible theatregoing experience. It definitely gave me the creeps. Lee Remick in Wait Until Dark definitely received the loudest audience screams I have witnessed. This list makes me realize that there really have not been a lot of good suspense plays."

I am too young by a few years to have seen Wait Until Dark with Lee Remick and Robert Duvall, though I did see the movie (with my parents) a couple of years later.  Remick and Duvall had screen pedigree so it's interesting that they were not cast in the film (well, Duvall's pedigree came a little later though he is great in To Kill A Mockingbird), but one can't complain about Hepburn and Arkin in the film.  That climax brought a collective scream out of the audience in the movie theatre!  I imagine it was unforgettable live.

 

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 4/30/23 at 10:11am

the big twist in Deathtrap shook me the first time.

[hearthemsing22]

Posted: 4/30/23 at 1:37pm

I saw Woman in Black, and by intermission I had to leave. Waaaaay too creepy for me. 

[justoldbill]

Posted: 4/30/23 at 10:11pm

Hal Prince's production of THE VISIT with the New Phoenix Rep (with John McMartin and Rachel Roberts) in the mid-1970's.  A remarkable production I will never forget.

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 5/1/23 at 5:15am

Death and the Maiden: those final twenty minutes

[hearthemsing22]

Posted: 5/1/23 at 3:12pm

I wonder if we'll be adding Grey House to this thread 

[SteveSanders]

Posted: 12/14/25 at 12:16pm

Seeing Glenn Close in Knives Out: Wake Up Dead Man made me think she would be an excellent Helga ten Dorp in Deathtrap.  Probably too small a role.

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 12/14/25 at 12:46pm

Glad this thread was resurfaced so I could add my praise for Lucas Hnath’s The Thin Place at Playwrights Horizons back in 2019. Its suspense came late in the play and knocked me completely sideways, and I think about it almost every day. I’ve never experienced anything like it in a theater.

[Melissa25]

Posted: 12/14/25 at 1:22pm

Perhaps I was reminded by seeing the great Brían F. O'Byrne this week playing the kind, hermitty widower on Netflix’s The Abandons. A gory new soapy mini-series worth watching for the cowboy hats alone on Gillian Anderson and Lena Headley but I digress. 

One of my most suspenseful theater memories was from watching O’Byrne play the pedophile serial killer in Bryony Lavery's powerful play Frozen back in 2004 at Circle in the Square. It was directed by Doug Hughes and also starred Swoosie Kurtz and Laila Robins. Kurtz plays the mother of one of his victims who visits him in prison. Robins, as the psychiatrist, provides an outsider’s observation.  

It was chilling and unforgettable.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 12/14/25 at 1:39pm

It’s time for a New York revival of THE PILLOWMAN!!

[Yessica Haircut]

Posted: 12/14/25 at 1:57pm

njguy2 said: "Medea with Fiona Shaw"

I would also say Medea, though mine would be the BAM production with Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale. On a similar note, I would add current production of Oedipus. The fact that both were more of a modernization added to this - of course I knew what tragic end the story was heading toward, but it was how it would play out in each context that kept me engaged. With Medea, it was waiting until Anna (Byrne's modern Medea) finally snapped, like waiting for a collision that you were powerless to stop; with Oedipus - especially with the on-stage countdown - it was literally knowing a bomb was going to go off, while everyone went about their business unaware that something catastrophic was going to occur, waiting for both that moment and the aftermath.

[The Bittersweets]

Posted: 12/14/25 at 4:54pm

I'm also glad this thread resurfaced! In the time since it was created, the recent productions of Our Dear Dead Drug Lord and Appropriate both fit the bill for me. The end of Drug Lord had me covering my eyes, and Appropriate was the last time I heard an audience scream (you know the moment).

[uncageg]

Posted: 12/14/25 at 5:24pm

Deathtrap and Grey House.

[TheOtherOne2]

Posted: 12/14/25 at 8:01pm

SteveSanders said: "Seeing Glenn Close in Knives Out: Wake Up Dead Man made me think she would be an excellent Helga ten Dorp in Deathtrap. Probably too small a role."

Glenn is so great in Wake Up Dead Man.