Perth Classic Theatre’s Dial M for Murder is an absorbing and well paced drama.
Photo. Jean-Denis Labelle with Greg Campbell and Richard Gélinas
The key assumptions in Dial M for Murder are that planning the perfect murder takes time and that something is almost certain to go awry, no matter how meticulous and detailed the plan.
Frederick Knott’s 1952 murder mystery — more a will-he-get-away-with-it than a whodunit — is most familiar as the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock movie starring Grace Kelly and Ray Milland.
As directed by Laurel Smith, the Classic Theatre Festival production of Dial M for Murder now playing in Perth, is absorbing and well paced and David Magladry’s well-appointed set is both workable and in tune with the period.
Knott’s carefully crafted thriller is part straightforward storytelling (so somewhat heavy on exposition) and part study of a psychopath. Former tennis pro Tony Wendice, played with style by Greg Campbell, is all surface charm and the ability to talk his way out of tight corners, while being devoid of conscience and secure in his sense of entitlement.