In 1954, Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense, invited cinema audiences to see Dial M for Murder, a “masterpiece of mystery and melodrama”. Now, Tempo Theatre is staging the award-winning play upon which the film is based — and which “held two continents spellbound with suspense!”
Tempo has made a speciality of Agatha Christie plays, but Dial M for Murder is a howcatchem, not a whodunnit — a forerunner of Columbo.
“I was always intrigued with the idea that somebody would plan a crime, and then you see that everything doesn’t turn out right,” Knott told interviewers. “You can plan a murder in great detail, and then put the plan into action, and invariably something goes wrong, and then you have to improvise. And in the improvisation, you trip up and make a very big mistake.”
On the surface, Margot (Chloe Smith) and Tony Wendice (Bradley Jones) seem like a well-matched couple: young, attractive, wealthy.
But Margot has the money and a lover, Max Halliday (Sachin Nayak) — and ex-tennis champ Tony wants his wife dead. He blackmails Captain Lesgate (Guyren Howe) into murdering Margot while he secures his cast-iron alibi.
But, as crime writer Max observes, unlike perfect murders in stories, things don’t always turn out the way their author intends them to… And soon Scotland Yard’s Chief Inspector Hubbard (Chris McGrane) enters the scene to investigate…
“The mystery is: will they get away with it? Will they convince the police of the way it happened?” director Jon Elphick says.
“It’s a really good story. It’ll keep people guessing if they don’t know the story; it’ll keep people on the edge of their seats.”
Elphick describes Knott’s thriller as “effective and atmospheric”, full of “twists, turns, dangers and deception”.
Dial M was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic. Originally written for television, it soon transferred to London’s West End. It then ran for 552 performances on Broadway, and received the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Play from the Mystery Writers of America.
More recently, mystery blogger Jim Noy (The Invisible Event) praised the script “for the intelligence of its plotting and the density with which [it] fits in its various, immensely clever reversals”.
But Dial M for Murder has not been staged in Canberra for decades, if at all. (Theatregoers might remember Canberra Rep’s 2017 production of another Knott play, Wait Until Dark.)
The play has a small cast — only five characters — and all the action takes place in the Wendices’ London flat. It is, Noy writes, “a masterpiece of how to use one location and a handful of people”.
Tempo is building a big set: an apartment block with a section of the flat, the corridor outside, and stairs up to the next flat.
Elphick is particularly pleased with the pivotal 26-minute scene in which Tony coerces Lesgate into becoming his accomplice, while two scenes that take place in semi-darkness are nail-bitingly tense.
“If you’re a fan of Hitchcock and you know his style of movie, you’ll enjoy this play,” Elphick says. “It’s pure entertainment.”
Dial M for Murder, by Frederick Knott, directed by Jon Elphick. Tempo Theatre, Belconnen Community Theatre, 29 May to 6 June. Tickets: $40; concessions $35; group bookings of 8+ $32. Visit Canberra Ticketing online or phone (02) 6275 2700.
