Anna Samson and Garth Holcombe in Dial M for Murder.
This is a good, old-fashioned murder mystery, delivered with panache – and one that keeps us guessing until the final scene. Director Mark Kilmurry drives the plot along with precision, and his cast of five cannot be faulted.
Frederick Knott’s Dial M for Murder was made famous in the 1950s by film maestro Alfred Hitchcock, but the story will be new to many. There’s a love triangle, blackmail and a whole lot of deception going on. We might know whodunit, but what we don’t know is whether the dastardly perpetrator is going to get away with it.
In this new (2022) adaptation for the stage, playwright Jeffrey Hatcher has made one of the original characters female, changing Max to Maxine, giving us a (welcome) female addition to the cast of five. It’s still a period piece, though, and – as the Ensemble so often provides – there is a beautifully redolent 1950s set, thanks to designer Nick Fry (who also took care of the costumes).
But to the plot. The love triangle: rich socialite Margot (Anna Wendice) is married to charming ex-tennis pro Tony Wendice (Garth Holcombe), but when the play opens she is in deep conversation with her ex-lover Maxine Halliday (Madeleine Jones), a writer of crime novels. They are discussing the mystery of a lost letter, stolen from Margot. Penned by Maxine, it contains explicit details of the pair’s affair. Margot has paid off an unknown blackmailer, but never received her letter back. Her husband knows nothing about this, or so she thinks.
The women’s conversation moves on murder. ‘Anyone can be a killer,’ asserts Maxine, who’s in London to promote her newest book – and she goes on to list the five motives that drive a murderer: revenge, jealousy, money, fear and protection of loved ones.
Enter the husband, who is also Maxine’s UK publicist. Right from the beginning, Holcombe is superb as the suave but smug Tony. He appears to be the most attentive spouse, and he and Margot perform a perfect little scenario of the 1950s happily married couple, as Maxine looks on with a cynical eye.
But soon we see Tony leaning on an old acquantaince from his school – a ne’er-do-well going by the name of Captain Lesgate (David Soncin), who’s already well versed in the business of murder and is ripe for blackmail. An intricate scheme is put forward, the end result of which would be a very dead Margot and a very rich widower.
No spoilers to know it doesn’t all go as planned (or it would be a very short play). The long arm of the law becomes involved, in the shape of Inspector Hubbard (Kenneth Moraleda) and things start to get very complicated indeed. The devil, as they say, is in the detail… and villainous Tony is adept at detail, and improvisations, and covering his tracks. There are twists, there are turns, there is much to enjoy as the suspense unravels.
The ensemble cast, as already noted, is excellent, with Samson, Jones and Holcombe standouts. Kudos, too, to fight director Scott Witt. Oh, for handily placed scissors when one is ambushed at home!
This Dial M for Murder makes for a neat and highly enjoyable night at the theatre. And there is, as Samson’s Margot notes, ‘an edge of darkness to it while at the same time [it provides] rompy entertainment.’ Quite so!
It runs until 11 January 2026
Tickets: $43-94
More: https://www.ensemble.com.au/shows/dial-m-for-murder/#prices
