By David
Brooks Andrews / Correspondent
MetroWest Daily E-News
Thursday, November
7, 2002
As we grow
more sophisticated as audiences, it becomes harder for stage thrillers to make
us feel that delicious sense of suspense, as if we are children willing to
abandon our disbelief for an evening.
The Worcester
Foothills Theatre regularly includes a thriller in their season, but they've
come up with one of their best in a long while in Frederick Knott's "Dial `M'
for Murder." The play originally opened in New York City in 1952 and was made
into a popular motion picture in 1954 starring Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, and
Robert Cummings.
The story
avoids feeling dated by refusing to follow an obvious formula. Instead it keeps
us guessing from the very beginning as to where it's headed, if you haven't seen
the film version recently or don't remember it in detail.
Under Jack
Neary's superb direction (he's a local playwright whose work is often produced
by Foothills), the production makes hay of the period elements by handling them
with great polish and drawing obvious links to some of Hitchcock's more famous
thrillers. While part of the pleasure of this show is its suspense, there's also
plenty of enjoyment in how the conventions of the genre are
handled.
When the play
opens, Margot and Tony Wendice are being visited in their well-appointed London
apartment by the American Max Halliday, her former lover. She's convinced that
her husband is unaware of the relationship she's had with
Max.
Tony is a
former tennis star, who was successful enough to develop a name but not
successful enough to become wealthy at it. Part of that no doubt has to do with
the era, when sports stars received much more modest incomes. And so his wife's
money is of interest to him. Peter Bubriski in the role of Tony is one of the
real draws of the show as he exudes just the right degree of sophisticated
British glibness and manipulation, while keeping things moving with a great
sense of pace and timing.
We know there
are lots of things hidden beneath his surface, which is underscored by the
quickness with which he drops his facade-one moment graciously helping Max into
a dinner jacket and the next moment, when he's alone, throwing the jacket,
literally, into the next room.
Rachel Harker
plays Margot as a lovely woman who's glad to see her former lover, but who makes
it clear that she's now committed to her husband. Harker goes for a pleasant
neutrality, until the action picks up, and she's truly believable at portraying
the disheveled terror of having undergone a very harrowing experience indeed,
while adding a sexy bedroom touch. She has nice proper London
accent.
Peter Motson
plays Max Halliday, a writer of television thrillers, with a clear hint of Jimmy
Stewart, both in his voice and mannerisms, without overdoing it. It's a
conscious wink at a film like "Rear Window" while conveying the sense of a man
who seems to be unaware of Tony's evil plans, but whose underlying intelligence
and decency should not be dismissed.
When Tony
sends his wife and Max off to the theater one evening, he lures over a Captain
Lesgate to assist him in making plans to murder his wife. This scene is one of
the more delightful in the play, and Barry Press as Captain Lesgate makes
terrific adjustments as he's exposed.
At one point,
while talking theoretically, the writer Max assures Tony that "in real life
murders don't turn out as they do on paper." We realize this fact is at the very
heart of the story. Things obviously will not turn out as Tony
plans.
There are many
exciting moments and intricate details to the play, which for the sake of
suspense are best left unmentioned. Suffice it to say that Buzz Roddy brings a
charming meat-and-potatoes (or should we say shepherd's-pie-and-boiled-peas)
practicality to Inspector Hubbard as he probes to determine exactly what has
happened.
In some ways,
the first two acts are the most satisfying as they set up the suspense and cause
us to fall in love with the characters, both as people and as reminders of movie
stars from a bygone era. The final act feels a little more conventional as it
unravels the mystery and dangles clues in front of us.
Ken
Goldstein's elegant recreation of a 1950s London apartment, with built-in
cabinets, chandelier, and fireplace is the Foothills at their scenic best and
very much helps to set the mood.
The crispness
of the performances and freshness of the story make this a delightful evening
for anyone who enjoys a good thriller or, for that matter, anyone who believes
thrillers don't have much pleasure to offer.
'Dial M' connects on first try
Tuesday, November 5, 2002
By Paul Kolas
TELEGRAM & GAZETTE
REVIEWER Frederick Knott, directed by Jack Neary. At Foothills Theatre,
Worcester Common Outlets, 100 Front Street, Suite 137, Worcester. Performances
at 2 and 8 p.m. Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 4 and 8:30 p.m. Saturdays; and 2 and
7 p.m. Sundays through Nov. 24 (no 7 p.m. performance Nov. 24). Tickets: $23.50
to $29. Student tickets available. Call (508) 754-4018 for reservations.
With
Peter Bubriski, Rachel Harker, Peter Motson, Barry M. Press, Buzz Roddy and Bob
Dolan.
WORCESTER-- “Dial M
for Murder,” which was given an elegant and stylish opening by the Foothills
Theatre Company on Sunday, isn't so much a whodunit as a
will-he-get-away-with-it.
The pleasure isn't
shrouded in conventional mystery but unraveled in the clever, surprising details
and missteps that accrue along the way over a quietly gripping two
hours.
Before the actors even step onstage, we are afforded a mood-enhancing
pastiche of Bernard Herrmann's great music scores from classic Alfred Hitchcock
films such as “Vertigo” and in one crucial scene, the screeching strings from
“Psycho.”
Adding to the sense of
Hitchcockian deja vu is Peter Motson's often uncanny Jimmy Stewart mannerisms
and vocal inflections. Motson plays Max Halliday, a TV crime writer with a most
active imagination who has had an affair with the lovely and wealthy Margot
Wendice (Rachel Harker), who in turn is married to an ex-tennis pro,
Tony.
Tony Wendice is almost
a villain you can root for, devious but charming and charismatic to the core.
He's been plotting to kill his wife for over a year, knowing of his wife's
recent affair, and blackmails an old college chum with a shady past, Captain
Lesgate, alias C.A. Swan, into performing the deed for a thousand
pounds.
Peter Bubriski throws
himself into the role of Tony with ferocious cunning, constantly straining to
keep one step ahead of all the ways his meticulously constructed plan can go
awry. When it does and he's forced to go from Plan A to Plan B, there's a comic
edge to Bubriski's performance that finely complements the conventional tensions
that normally inhabit the mystery thriller genre.
Director Jack Neary
seems to have mined all he can of the playful, droll humor in Frederick Knott's
drama -- including Max's suggestion to Tony in Act 3 that mirrors his original
murder plan.
Inspector Hubbard is
one of those mildly patronizing, but fastidiously intrepid British bloodhounds
assigned to the case, and Buzz Roddy does him full justice, reminding this
viewer at least of Alex McCowen's memorable Chief Inspector Oxford in
Hitchcock's “Frenzy.” Just when you think he's missed a clue along the way, he
has been piecing it all together -- as the satisfying finale proves.
Harker invests the
role of the wife in peril with patrician flair and grace, someone who is more
resourceful and observant than she's ultimately given credit for by her
nefarious husband. Barry M. Press is quite effective as Swan, the college mate
who figures into Tony's murder plans in a very unfortunate manner.
The one-room set is
well appointed, thanks to the discerning eye of Ken Goldstein, matched by Nicole
Watson Oehling's refined costume design. Finally, praise goes to Edward Thurber
for that wonderfully evocative Herrmann music.