Way of working to exploit actor’s role turning up in play-within-a-play (9)
I believe the answer is:
mousetrap
'play' is the definition.
(I know that mousetrap is a type of play)
'way of working to exploit actor's role turning up' is the wordplay.
'way of working' becomes 'mo' (modus operandi).
'to exploit actor' becomes 'use' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'role' becomes 'part' (eg a part or role in a film).
'turning up' is a reversal indicator.
'part' in reverse letter order is 'trap'.
'mo'+'use'+'trap'='MOUSETRAP'
'in play-within-a' is the link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for mousetrap that I've seen before include "pest control device" , "Cheese-baited snare" , "Anti-rodent device" , "Rodent catcher" , "Snare for vermin" .)