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.