DOUBLE INDEMNITY Ipswich/ Salisbury
Salisbury
DOUBLE INDEMNITY
by James M Cain Adapted by David Joss Buckley
Salisbury Playhouse to 17November 2001
Runs 2hr 40min One interval
TICKETS 01722 320333
Review Hazel Brown 13 November
The classic film noir and original short novel make uneasy transition onto the stage.James M Cain's story became a film noir classic, but transition to the stage, without the help of camera angles, long shots and voiceovers, is only a partial success in this Salisbury co-production with the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich. Whilst the monologue is an accepted stage convention, it did not work here, slowing up the action and sometimes telling us more than we needed to know. Long before the femme fatale, adulteress Phyllis, tells us she is evil, the audience behind me were whispering that she was evil personified.
The plot involves a murder and an insurance scam and all the dramatic tension is supposed to come from whether or not the pair of lovers will succeed and get the money – if someone dies on a railroad, the payout is twice the size. But this dramatic tension is lost since we know the outcome from the beginning.
So attention is focused on the psychology and relationships between the characters – which are formulaic and set in their time frame of the 40's – the dogged investigator, the inexperienced son who has inherited the business, the femme fatale -an independent woman who uses sex blatantly and therefore is to be feared - the disillusioned young man and the innocent young girl, who ultimately inspires true love.
Added to this is the mystery of a woman in a dressing gown and three ghostly children who keep appearing. The denouement is convoluted, leaving some of the audience mystified. All this is acceptable in a film of its period, but translated onto today's stage it leaves one unmoved.
Good performances, especially from Richard Dillane as Huff and Peter Banks as Keyes, the hardboiled investigator who is betrayed by his young protégé. The original jazz is sensational: by turns cool and louch or hot and menacing.
Charles Norton: David Jarvis
Barton Deyes: ` Peter Banks
Walter Huff: Richard Dillane
Belle/Mrs Nirdlinger: Maggie Tagney
Phyllis Nirdlinter: Jayne McKenna
Lola Nirdlinger/Stewardess: Amy Darcy
Herbert Nirdlinger/Jackson: Lloyd Johnston
Director: Peter Rowe
Designer: Richard Foxton
Lighting: Nick Beadle
Sound: Al Ashford
Composer/Movement: Matthew Bugg
2001-11-18 04:37:59