It's back to the Seventies in Brighton this week with Ira Levin's dependable thriller Deathtrap, drawing in the crowds as it has since its first outing 24 years ago.

After plodding round the provinces for several months, this old war-horse of a play is in surprisingly good shape.

That's more than can be said for David Soul, once part of the Starsky And Hutch TV duo and now a portly, balding, middle-aged stage actor.

But Soul is both convincing and capable as playwright Sidney Bruhl, whose muse dried up long before the supplies in his booze cabinet.

When presented with the perfect plot called Deathtrap by a young and naive former student, Bruhl determines to kill the putative playwright and pass off the work as his own.

But the young man, played fetchingly by Gerald Kyd, has a few surprises up the short sleeves of his Seventies jumper and from then on, the plot has more twists and turns than the road up Ditchling Beacon.

In the middle of all this mayhem, stands Sidney's wife Myra, a rather doppy character made more so by Susan Penhaligon.

The experienced actress abandons her normal composure whenever the two men make things go wrong for her and descends into a series of strange noises; a case of boy meets gurgle.

There are so many unexpected deaths that even in his former role on TV in Casualty, Kyd would have had a tough time clearing up the carnage.

Becky Hindley makes the most of playing Helga, the Bruhls' psychic neighbour for whom the ever-professional Levin has provided a series of excellent exit lines, while Stewart Bevan is authentic as an astute American lawyer.

Director Peter Wilson ensures the audience is shocked and even stunned several times during this stagey but undeniably effective thriller.

Designer Andrew Leigh has provided an intricate set for the Bruhls' front room where many of the props are part of the plot.

What saves this play from being just another thriller is the witty dialogue, expertly delivered, particularly by Soul and Hindley.

It does create a rather brutal atmosphere, making the frequent fatalities seem even more unbelievable than they are but the actors carry the willing audience with them.

Deathtrap may not have much heart but it does have Soul.