KCAT’s Dial M For Murder turns up the tension on a brisk ‘true crime’ precursor

Photo by Brian Paulette

Dial M for Murder is one of those ur-texts of the concept of murder mystery that long ago faded into the very makeup of the genre’s DNA. The 1952 play by Frederick Knott was immortalized in film form two years later by Alfred Hitchcock—in one of his perfect personal thrillers that eschewed the need for cinematic flair for the opportunity to let actors tackle a small-scale trifling with lies and manipulation. As a personal fan of his era of plays-on-film like Rope, I went into KCAT’s production hoping to see a slight variation on the feature I knew shot for shot. Instead, a new adaptation by Jeffrey Hatcher combined with Katie Gilchrist’s direction made a revised, re-animated work of bloody undercutting with a modern angle on a familiar twist.

Tony (Darren Kennedy) is a failed writer who has decided to kill his wife, Margot (Elise Poehling), after discovering she’d had an affair with her friend Maxine (Hillary Clemens), a thriller novelist. It’s not jealousy that drives Tony to murder, though. It’s just her money. The play involves a satisfying number of twists and turns, along with some staples of the genre, including a shady character from Tony’s past (Bradley J. Thomas) hired to commit the murder and an adroit detective (Jen Mays) keeping her cards close to her vest.

Photo by Brian Paulette

The deeply buried queer love story and a new backstory for Tony’s bitter dedication to committing a career-ending implosion from the inside of his prey, the show is littered with desperate digs and subtly indignities as a game of cat-and-cat-and-cat-and-mouse plays out across three specific nights. The stylized 1950s flat on stage, combined with some of the strongest choices in lighting I’ve seen at this theater, makes for a few different iterations of a single location that transforms the space into its own separate character.

But more importantly, the original play could not have conceived the degree to which “true crime” as entertainment would sweep American consciousness. To dress up the 1950s show in the trapping of modern murder mappers trading crimes and theories despite constantly digging holes to implicate only themselves, the ‘turnabout as fair play’ works for and against all the leads in equal measure. It’s a show that not only experiences the normal progression of cultural reframing but one that fires on an all-new set of cylinders.

KCAT’s Dial M for Murder thrives under the passion of its entire cast and a true dedication to fast-talking criminal hijinks that never allows for a lull. As an added bonus, I’ve simply never seen a cast drown themselves on stage in the sheer volume of fake booze being constantly tossed back and refilled. That anyone involved avoided a grisly fate, fictional or bladder-functional, deserves its own highly specific reward.

Dial M for Murder runs at City Stage in Union Station through Sept. 29 and tickets are available here.