DIAL M FOR MURDER. To 2 July.
Tour
DIAL M FOR MURDER
by Frederick Knott
Tour to 2 July 2005
Runs 2hrs 30 mins One interval
Review Hazel Brown 27 January 2005 at Lighthouse, Poole
Fifties drawing room drama has me dialling M . . . for mercy.Although Frederick Knott's thriller was written for the stage, its most acclaimed version is Hitchcock's film and, despite attempts in Middle Ground Theatre Company's revival to extend the play outside the proscenium arch with pieces of filmed action projected onto the door of an elaborate set, it fails here to generate suspense. The wordy scene-setting and over elaborate plotting had me ready to dial for mercy.
Max Halliday has just returned from America and hopes to re-ignite his love affair with the married Sheila. Joy Brook, in a gorgeous 50's cocktail frock, has had second thoughts about this as she thinks Tony has become the model husband during the past year. There is hardly a frisson between these two and Max accedes to the new situation with scarcely a pause for regret. Sheila wants to cover up their relationship by engineering a friendship between Max and Tony. But Tony has other plans and sends the two out for the evening so that he can set up the murder. He pulls in a bounder whom he knew from his school days and sets about blackmailing him into committing murder.
Tony's elaborate plans go awry and whilst a murder is committed, the wrong person ends up dead and Tony embarks on a plan to frame his wife for the murder. Enter Mr Plod or Inspector Hubbard (Michael Lunney, with a hilarious Midlands accent) to sort things out. By this stage, I no longer cared whether the villain would be discovered, nor did I believe in the elaborate set-up to unmask the villain and prevent a hanging.
Perhaps it's the detached attitude of the characters, rooted firmly in the 50's setting, making it hard to believe in the deep murderous feelings that should be driving Tony. Nor is Stephen Pinder credible as a former tennis star; he lacked any lean, rangy menace, while the three-cornered relationship between Tony, Sheila and Max is so cool and reasonable it would be hard to believe that Tony would spend a whole year planning a murder.
However, the audience in Poole, largely a huge teenage group from a local school, seemed to enjoy the play, clapping along to the over loud and, in my opinion inappropriate, blues guitar riffs that greeted each descent and ascent of the curtain, and squealing when the murderer and the villain approached the door in filmed sequences. So, whilst some theatergoers might find something to enjoy, theatre surely has more to offer than elaborate sets and complicated plots.
Sheila Wendice: Joy Brook
Max Halliday: Richard Grieve
Tony Wendice: Steven Pinder
Captain Lesgate: Richard Walsh
Inspector Hubbard: Michael Lunney
Thompson: James Morley
Director/Designer: Michael Lunney
Lighting: Sebastian Pettit
Sound/Music: Mark Taylor
Film Cameraman/Editor: Matthew Larkin
2005-01-28 23:56:38