Dial M for Murder

St John’s Players not only presented a suspenseful drama on the stage, but put a lot of thought into setting it in context for the audience before the action even began. The background information given out during the health and safety notices before the play, gave a fascinating insight into the author, Frederick Knott’s, connection to Fulbourn, thus cleverly engaging the audience from the outset. The historical details in the programme provided an extra dimension to the 1950s set action, drawing the audience in to what was about to unfold.

The play was co-directed by George Sigsworth and Marian Caine, who worked well together to create a deliberately stylised piece of theatre, convincingly transporting the audience back to an authentic 1950s drama, brought to life by the 5 actors who seemed quite at home with their intentionally mannered delivery.

Fay Childs as Sheila Wendice and James Rosser as her husband, Tony Wendice, performed their roles with enough stiffness to give not only a convincing portrayal of a couple of that period, but also enough canniness to show a modern audience that all was definitely not as it seemed, with each of them betraying the other below a superficial politeness requisite for the times. Fay, successfully conveying the subservient 1950s housewife with much more to her than meets the eye, in contrast to James’s arrogant, narcissistic Tony.

This awkwardness was of a different nature between Sheila and her one-time lover Max Halliday. Sebastian Blount gave his character a similar formality externally, but he very gently showed a much softer, more likeable and intelligent depth beneath the prim and proper exterior. As the intrigue developed, Max was able to skillfully convey his character’s thoughts with subtle gestures and canny eye movements, showing the audience he was always one step ahead of his rival Tony.

Dean Ward as Captain Lesgate made the audience feel uncomfortable as soon as he made his entrance, with the initial scene between him and Tony being played out, most appropriately,  like a psychological game of tennis, with the audience unsure, until the very end, who was winning.

Justin Allum as Inspector Hubbard really knew how to work his audience, managing to present  a hero as a mixture of an almost comical police officer and a terrifyingly sinister villain to great aplomb, again with wonderful use of his eyes, belying what he was saying in his lines.

The pace and fluency of all the actors was highly commendable, as were all the sound and lighting cues. The costumes were fresh and beautifully presented. The set was well constructed and dressed, other than the bookcase which proved somewhat distracting, because it looked like it was covered in a plastic film that caught the light every time the actors passed it. The other distraction was the oval mirror on the wall stage left, which was not a working mirror. If used by an actor, it needed to be convincing, otherwise it wasn’t necessary to have a mirror in view of the audience at all. The stained glass panel in the front door was a delightful detail.

The closing of the curtains for lengthy periods between the scenes was unwelcome. The actors worked hard to present a pacey performance, full of energy, which suffers when there are frequent blackouts or curtains closing. The incidental music playing during this time was not sufficient to keep the audience engaged, and the audience members began talking to each other, which is not ideal during a performance. On the plus side, the chatter was probably about howdunnit (not whodunnit, because this was known!), so all was not lost. There wasn’t much set changing, apart from the couch turning into a bed, so it was presumably done to allow the cast to change costume. Set changing can be done visibly, without too much distraction, and maybe   innovative ways of visibly putting finishing touches to costume can be found, to avoid those long hiatuses wherever possible.

However, this was an enthralling production, with the audience members on the edge of their seats throughout. The actors were made up of members old and new to the Society, and created a team that gelled extremely well. This was a most enjoyable evening, with much discussion on the way home about how many and whose keys were where at any given time!

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