When her wealthy husband, W. Harrison Brent, turns up dead, she gets caught in the middle of a terrifying game of cat and mouse with her deranged patient, Lionel McAuley, and Inspector Ascher, the handsome but duplicitous investigator assigned to the case.

[5] Perfect Crime was originally optioned for Broadway in 1980 by Morton Gottlieb, just after author Manzi graduated from the Yale School of Drama.

[6] After producer Morton Gottlieb wanted to change the play's title to Guilty Hands, Manzi lost interest and went to Hollywood to write screenplays, including one of the many versions of the film Clue.

[7] With the script sitting in a drawer for several years, the play ultimately began its life in 1987, in Greenwich Village at the Courtyard Playhouse on Grove Street, produced by the Actors Collective, a not-for-profit theater company where Manzi was serving as artistic director.

It played in a number of New York theaters over the years including: In November 2016, Gary Busey spent two weeks in the role of Lionel.

Six months ago, Harrison, during one of these role playing therapy sessions, committed suicide by putting real bullets in the gun he gave to Carlotta.

When Margaret finds out that Carlotta was her daughter and that she will be arrested as an accessory to the murders of Mrs. Johaneston and McAuley, she tries to commit suicide, but Ascher has filled her gun with blanks.