REVIEW: Jeffrey Hatcher’s Stage Adaptation of DIAL M FOR MURDER Brings An Extra Twist To The Thriller

Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock (Director) and Frederick Knott’s (Screenplay) DIAL M FOR MURDER brings the thriller to life for a new audience with a few new twists.  Director Mark Kilmurry has bought together a fine cast that lean into the humour beneath the suspense of whether the truth will be uncovered.

For Hatcher’s variation, which premiered in 2022, the original setting of an apartment of a wealthy couple in 1950’s London remains the same but the characters are changed.  Tony Wendice (Garth Holcombe) was an aspiring murder mystery writer, but all his manuscripts had been rejected, instead offered a position as a publicist at one of the publishing houses he’d submitted to.  He’d been a bit of a man-about-town before he’d settled down with Margot (Anna Samson) heiress to a fortune but in his past he’d dated another murder mystery writer, Maxine Hadley (Madeleine Jones).  What he didn’t know is that Margot and Maxine also knew each other, at least not until he spied them together when he was supposed to be out of town.  After a year of plotting and planning what he believes will be the perfect murder so he can give up the ruse of marriage and start a new life with Margot’s fortune, things don’t quite go to plan but he hopes he can outsmart the bumbling Inspector Hubbard (Kenneth Moraleda). 

Nick Fry has transformed the Ensemble stage into a well-appointed London apartment with the Living area and corridor to the bedroom and rest of the apartment being the focal point.  Matt cox’s lighting heightens the drama with the reminder of the referenced French windows and the shift from cozy home with the occasional lights to the absence of the table lamp as a reminder of the events that took place. Costuming conveys the characters with ease while ensuring that they fit within the era when clothes were well tailored and even the most hastily thrown on ensembles still looked put together. 

As Margot, Anna Samson displays a brilliant unravelling of the perfect wife to distressed condemned woman, reinforcing Margot and Tony’s comfortable life and need-to-know prim and proper secrecy and desperation and confusion at the situation she’s found herself in.  Madeleine Jones ensures that Maxine is seen as a stronger character as the American novelist, returned for her publicity tour and reuniting with old friends but not quite sure where that friendship now sits.  Jones brings a gravitas to the role, reinforcing that Maxine has been successful in her crafting of a murder plot while Tony’s books have all been rejected. 

Garth Holcombe ensures that Tony is thoroughly unlikable, even from the start when its clear that there is an undercurrent of something not right in both his marriage and his relationship with his client, Maxine.  As the alumnus and seasoned criminal that Tony has blackmailed, David Soncin has a relatively minor role as Captain Lesgate but he plays it with the requisite self preservation one would expect of a man that realises that his web of lies could be unwoven if he doesn’t comply. 

The stand out performance comes from Kenneth Moraleda as Inspector Hubbard.  Moraleda has a way with physical expression that says so much before he even needs to speak.  He delivers a nuanced performance that balances the apparent ineptitude of the Police Inspector with a quiet calculation as he has everyone thinking they are ‘safe’ so they’ll let their guard down. 

While DIAL M FOR MURDER is not necessarily groundbreaking or a significant deviation from the original plot aside from the character shifts, this production is an easy piece of escapism and an opportunity to be treated to Madeleine Jones and Kenneth Moraleda returning to the drama stage. 

DIAL M FOR MURDER - Ensemble Theatre

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