Comic in a play stifling return of terror (5)
I believe the answer is:
panic
'return of terror' is the definition.
'panic' can be an answer for 'terror' (synonyms). I am not certain of the 'return of' bit.
'comic in a play stifling' is the wordplay.
'comic' indicates anagramming the letters (an unusual or comical spelling).
'a play' becomes 'pac' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'stifling' indicates putting letters inside (some letters get stifled or contained).
'in' anagrammed gives 'ni'.
'ni' placed inside 'pac' is 'PANIC'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for panic that I've seen before include "Blind fear" , "Frantic fright" , "Grass" , "Uncontrollable terror, infectious fear" , "Agitation" .)