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For the play “Dial M for Murder,” the Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts is going back to the original version.
Not the rewrite from a few years ago, but the one Alfred Hitchcock liked so muchhe bought the rights to in order to direct it for the movies in 1954.
Wagon Wheel alumn Tony Humrichouser, who returned to direct the suspense thriller, explained, “Frederick Knott wrote the play in 1952 and it was originally a BBC teledrama. So they televised it first in England, and then it was quickly adapted for the stage because it was so popular. And then Hitchcock saw it and wanted the rights right away, but the playwright said, ‘No. If you bring me on as the script supervisor, you can have it.’ So he hired him. So, basically, what you see in the film is what you see on stage. Almost identical. The language is the same,” he explained.
It’s been revived over the years regionally, but hasn’t had another Broadway revival. A few years ago, in San Diego, they did a remount of the show with a rewrite, changing some of the characters. Humrichouser said the character change didn’t add anything to the play.
“We went back to the original, and I said to (Artistic Director) Scott (Michaels), this is still a really well-constructed play. Let’s just go with the original. So we have, but we’ve updated it,” he stated. “We’ve brought it into the now, as far as the look of the show. As far as, as many of the references as possible we did. So it’s been really fun working on it. It’s a tried-and-true play.”
Humrichouser said he thinks they’re doing a really good job at bringing new energy to it, and what they’ve realized is that it works.
“You don’t really have to do very much. The playwright really gave us everything that we needed. So, we’ve been able to kind of look at it through fresh eyes, a little more contemporary eyes, and kind of do what Wagon Wheel does, which I think is kind of investigate plays because you have to because it’s in the round,” he said.
The cast is really talented, he stated.
“This group of talent is just - that’s one of the reasons I love to return, is because we always have the talent that can handle material like this. We collaborate in rehearsal continually. They’re really smart, really good collaboraters, so it has been a pleasure.”
Humrichouser noted another long-time Wagon Wheel alum and actor, Kira Lace Hawkins, is serving as the assistant director for “Dial M for Murder.”
“She’s taken on all the dialect work in the show, because it is set in London, and to direct a play, as you know, you have 10 days. It’s a lot. So to have her just continually on the outside looking for vocal continuity has been a real gift, and so being able to collaborate with her has been a dream really,” Humrichouser said.
The reason the play was kept in London, instead of moving the setting to somewhere like New York or Miami, was because the language was “way too British.”
“The way it’s written, the vernacular, is pure London. And we tried the first day with doing American accents, and at the end of rehearsal Kira said, ‘Yeah, you know what, it just doesn’t fit.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I kind of agree.’ So, we went through the script and in updating it we updated a lot of the references, a lot of the money. There’s a lot of money exchanged in this play,” Humrichouser said.
Hawkins had spent a semester in London as a graduate student not too long ago, he said, so it was nice for her to have that immediate reference to that society.
As far as when the Wagon Wheel production of the play takes place, Humrichouser said there’s no date reference ever so it’s “in the now” but the year is never mentioned. However, what’s interesting is that the show uses rotary phones and not cell phones.
“A cell phone changes the play completely. You need to have a rotary phone, right?” he said. “Now, I happen to know when I was in Belgium, a lot of my Belgium friends in Europe still have rotary phones. So, we kind of keep that in the play, just because it’s so central to the plot.”
He’s not too sure a murder mystery with a cell phone would be able to happen as it would be too immediate.
“And there’s something about the suspense, the delay of a phone call,” Humrichouser said, noting he had to walk the cast through what used to happen when you made a phone call on a rotary phone because many of them didn’t know.
“So, I walked them through the idea of what ‘Dial M for Murder’ is, and I do think there’s a parallel to it. So it’s been very, very interesting,” he said.
What makes the play suspenseful is the idea of not knowing who’s calling, not being able to trace who’s on the other end of the phone call.
“We’re from a generation that I don’t think we would ever show up anywhere unannounced anymore. We’d send somebody a text, we might give them a call. We’d set it up. This is a generation where, that’s the difference, too. In 1952, people might stop by. They might ring your doorbell to stop by. So, that adds a whole other element to it. You never know who’s going to show up behind the door.”
For anyone who doesn’t know the basic premise of the plot, the husband, retired English professional tennis player Tony Wendice, hires his former classmate Charles Swann, to kill his wealthy socialite wife Margot, who has been having an affair with Mark Halliday, an American crime-fiction writer. Tony knows of the affair and is afraid Margot will divorce him and leave him penniless. Margot survives, and then Tony attempts to frame her for the murder of Charles.
“But what’s really interesting about it is, it’s also a play about class because Tony went to school with the murderer, basically they went to college together, but what ends up happening is, they have a parallel in the fact that the college friend has tried to marry into money, and what’s happened is, as a result, he has eliminated these women one by one, either leaving them or taking them for a great deal of money, using them. Tony’s doing basically the same thing with the woman he married. He’s using his status as a tennis star to manipulate her, and her being a socialite, it would be probably quite attractive to have a tennis star celebrity boyfriend. And so, he’s kind of living the life. Of course, it’s not enough for him so he’s got to get rid of her so he can live more of the life,” Humrichouser explained.
The play shows not only how greed can dictate a person’s life, but also how telling one lie can snowball into another and another and another.
“He gets into a web of lies and, from an audience’s perspective ... it’s compelling. Gosh, this guys’ unbelieveable. He is just a charismatic, convincing, seductive - he seduces people into doing what he wants them to do. It’s really interesting,” Humrichouser stated.
He lauded the set, which he said will be beautiful. Elements of the set weren’t added yet as of Tuesday’s interview, but he said it will include a series of mirrors that hang above the stage, reflecting down on the action.
“And I kind of wanted the idea of there’s always somebody watching,” he said.
The set, like the costumes and talent, are always the best at the Wagon Wheel, he said.
“That’s why I continually return. Like you, I have a dog. So in order for me to leave my dog, it has to be worth it, and this is always so worth it. Also, too, because Mike Higgins is here working on other shows. Scott is here. I’ve known Mike for 33 years. I’ve known Scott for 30,” Humrichouser reflected. “... And I think about Roy (Hine) every day that I walk into this theater, and I’m just proud of this legacy. It’s nice to be able to come back and contribute when it can happen.”
He said he knows there are other Wagon Wheel alumn who want to come back and direct so he waits his turn for Michaels to call him and ask him to direct a play. Humrichouser, of course, says yes.
“And then I come back, and it’s old home week, and I get a chance to see everybody,” he said.
The last show Humrichouser directed at the Wagon Wheel was “Murder on the Orient Express.” He also directed “The Mystery of Edwin Drood.”
“I like suspense. I like thinking of things that make me hold my breath. All those kid fears that we never really get rid of,” he said.
“Dial M for Murder” is at the Wagon Wheel from Thursday, July 16 until Saturday, July 25. Tickets may be purchased online at wagonwheelcenter.org, by calling the box office at 574-267-8041, or by visiting Wagon Wheel Center for the Arts at 2515 E. Center St., Warsaw.
