Dial M for Murder

By Frederick Knott

Directed by Lucy Bailey

Richmond Theatre

3rd – 7th Nov

Hitchcock is in my opinion the greatest of all film directors, many will agree I know, but what surprised me watching this play and talking to the audience at the interval and afterwards at the bus stop was how few people remembered seeing this film. That is to the advantage for this play as it is a very chilling suspense thriller.
Richard Lintern is no Ray Milland and just as well, for in this play he is 100 times better. He plays the cuckolded husband, the one time world tennis star Tony Wendice he has returned for a tournament to discover his main source of income, his wife Sheila Wendice played superbly and delightfully by Aislin McGuckin has taken a lover, the mystery story writer Max Hallida. At this moment I need to remind people that prior to 1969 tennis players were amateur and needed funding to play round the world. Enraged, Tony plots first to murder Max and then Sheila, but then changes his mind as he spots a face from the past, Captain Lesgate played in superbly creepy 1950’s style by Daniel Hill. Lesgate is a thief and a womanising philanderer, living and sponging off the affections of widows. So Wendice convinces Lesgate to murder Sheila. The attempt is horribly botched and the would-be murder is killed by Sheila. Wendice attempts to cover up his conspiracy and to implicit his wife as a murderer of a blackmailer, the very dead Lesgate.
This play has been described as a very well planned play, I think that is meant as a complement, it is indeed a very well constructed piece and needs to be. The whole plot revolves around our belief that Sheila Wendice could end up being a murderer, remembering that in the 1950’s the penalty for murder was hanging. This production is very chilling in its execution. There is excellent use of an evocative sound track and some superb sound and lighting effects. The very stylish and simple set has its own surprises as it adds to the cinematic feel of the production.
This is no spoof of a play about a film, the director; Lucy Bailey has stayed true to the original play script by Frederick Knott. She has, with exceptional ease, managed to combine a cinematic technique to the play to enhance the suspense of the piece. There is a very engaging soundtrack and some interesting sound effects, used to great effect and sparingly to make those moments more dramatic. The lighting wonderfully enhances the tension being developed by the actors. Most importantly done of the actors are trying to be someone else other than the person they are in the play. So that Aislin McGuckin becomes Sheila Wendice and not a Grace Kelly look alike trying to act as Grace Kelly playing Sheila Wendice.
The play itself provides this wonderful material for the actors and director to get their teeth into. Frederick Knott always wanted to be a mystery writer and he had managed to get a job as an apprentice writer for Rank. This did not fulfil his ambitions and on gaining an agent, was encouraged to write a play. After eighteen months of reading scripts he felt he knew what the perfect structure of a suspense play was and the result was ‘Dial M for Murder’. Naturally it was rejected by five theatre managements, but fortunately the BBC drama department were devouring material and so it was accepted on was broadcasted on 23rd March 1952 as a Sunday night play. It was a smash and then opened at the Westminster Theatre later that year and was a huge success. Alfred Hitchcock obtained the rights to the play and shot it in 3D, the first British director to do so, but perversely changed very little of the original format. It became a classic. Knott went on to write ‘Wait Until Dark’ which again became a classic movie starring Audrey Hepburn. Both plays were hugely successful both here and in America playing to packed houses for thousands of performances.
I can see no reason why this production should not be a huge success.

Reviewed by Evan Rule