Yellow Tree Theatre is opening their 17th season in a cozy strip mall in Osseo with a classic: the 1952 play
Dial M for Murder, adapted into a film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and now smartly adapted by local prolific playwright Jeffrey Hatcher.
The Guthrie produced this adaptation earlier this year, so I wasn't that excited when I heard Yellow Tree was doing it so soon after. But seeing the show last night, it totally won me over. It's a classic for a reason - an intricately plotted thriller with a strong female heroine who escapes death - and this new adaptation honors that but makes the story more modern with a few slight changes (the murderous husband is a failed novelist rather than former tennis celebrity, and the American writer named Max that his wife has an affair with is a woman). Yellow Tree's production on their sweet little intimate stage (as opposed to the Guthrie's expansive and lush thrust stage), with a fantastic four-person cast (one less than at the G), is definitely worth seeing, whether or not you've seen this story before.
Dial M for Murder plays Wednesdays through Sundays until October 13.
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Max (Erika Soukup) and Margot (Adeline Phelps)
(photo by Alex Clark) |
This play isn't a whodunit, as an early scene shows the aforementioned failed novelist Tony Wendice blackmailing an old school chum to kill his wealthy wife Margot. Tony caught her cheating with American writer Maxine Hadley, who has recently returned to London. The fact that it's a relationship between two women makes it more understandable why Margot, a member of the wealthy society, is afraid to leave her husband and pursue a relationship with a woman, and it makes the blackmail factor higher. So Tony starts plotting to kill her and continue living on her money, without the complications of a cheating wife. He lays out his seemingly foolproof plan (which, yes, involves a phone call), which of course hits a snag or two. He has to come up with Plan B on the fly, trying to explain the events of that evening to the detective in a way that doesn't arouse suspicion. Maybe it's not so easy to plan the perfect murder after all.*
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the would-be murderer (Edwin Strout) meets with Tony
(Charles Fraser, photo by Alex Clark) |
Brandon Raghu directs the piece with an elegant tension. The story isn't rushed, but plays out in its own time, with lots of pauses to pour and consume a drink (and it's still complete in two hours including intermission). Everyone in this four-person cast is terrific, playing all the layers of truth and lies. Adeline Phelps is a wonderful and sympathetic heroine as Margo, with a perfectly bouncy 1950s bob. Erika Soukup is smooth and graceful as her ex-lover Max, playing a bit of mystery in the character's motives. Charles Frasier plays the false charm over Tony's sinister motives well, and Edwin Strout nearly steals the show with two polar opposite performances. In the first act, he's the epitome of the lower class London mustachioed con man, willing to do anything for a buck. In the second act he's almost unrecognizable as the calm and measured detective who always get his man.
The entire play takes place in Tony and Margot's mid-century mod flat, well represented on the Yellow Tree stage, complete with the requisite three doors (garden doors, main door, and exit to the bedroom). The main door has a frosted glass window, allowing for delicious silhouettes of characters waiting just outside. The 1950s costumes are dreamy, especially Max's endless array of stylish dresses with matching hat, purse, shoes, and gloves. (Costume design by Samantha Fromm Haddow, scenic design by Sarah Brander, lighting design by Alex Clark.)
As we head into spooky season, see this classic thriller with modern sensibilities, in an all-around great production by Yellow Tree Theatre.
*Plot summary borrowed from my reviews of previous productions.
