Wednesday, September 18, 2024
“Dial M for Murder” at Pittsburgh Public Theater
The Pittsburgh Tatler: What makes a thriller thrilling?
In the case of material like Dial M for Murder, it’s unlikely to be the plot: for a long time Hitchcock’s film version (adapted from Frederick Knott’s 1952 stage play) aired fairly regularly on television, regularly enough that I suspect you could say to just about anyone over the age of forty that “it’s the one with the scissors” and they’d nod in recognition.
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2 comments:
I was fortunate enough to go see Dial M for Murder last week at the Public with a friend of mine. We had a blast. I had heard of the tv show, but had never seen it so I was intrigued by the murder mystery. It was the most thrilling 2 hours I have been through for a murder mystery play in a while. The characters all fed off each other well and the gender bending with Margot and Maxine added for an interesting twist, that even though it was set in 1950s London made it feel like it was contemporary and more intriguing for modern day audiences. I was thrilled to see many different CMU professors, and students working on this production and I knew to specifically look out for Stewart’s sound design throughout the piece. It was so subtle, yet I noticed it every time and every time it added to the suspense of the moment. I came away from this show with a newfound appreciation for murder mystery plays.
I think it’s always important to not just pay attention to large Broadway productions but also the ones that are going on around you locally. Supporting local theatre and regional theatre fosters a stronger theatre community as a whole. Dial M for Murder has been around for a long time, and while I have never seen it, I have heard the name many times. What I like about the show that is being staged in Pittsburgh are the reworkings of an old story to have modern commentary and meaning. When doing this with any show, understanding the range in which one can work before it turns into rewriting the playwrights original work is vital. While keeping the base elements, adding new features such as a female love interest changes the way the performance is received. This can be done very well to create new and impactful meaning from a well known show such as Dial M for Murder.
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