“Dial M for Murder”, the chilling play taking center-stage at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival Aug. 8-30, flips the concept of a “who-dun-it” on its head.
The original play, written by British playwright Frederick Knott in 1952, follows Tony Wendice as he schemes to kill his wife, Margot Wendice, for her inheritance. Spurred on by his jealousy at her affair with past lover Mark Halliday, Tony Wendice hires a man to kill his wife, but gets far more than he bargained for.
Knott is remembered for prioritizing quality over quantity, producing only three plays in his lifetime. “Dial M for Murder”, “Wait Until Dark” and “Write Me A Murder”, each of which has seen great commercial success.
In 1954, the play was adapted into a film directed by Alfred Hitchcock starring Grace Kelly (Margot), Ray Milland (Tony) and Robert Cummings (Mark).
American playwright Jeffrey Hatcher’s 2021 adaptation is the same story, but with a twist. The play features Margot’s relationship with Maxine Hadley, not Mark. Maxine is an accomplished crime writer, while Margot’s husband, Tony, fails time and again to get his writing recognized.
While this play may not receive a traditional happy ending, Carie Kawa (Maxine Hadley) said audience members will feel both unsettled and reassured while watching.
“My favorite cartoon to watch when I was a kid was Scooby Doo. You always know how it’s going to end, but there’s just something so comforting [about it],” Kawa said of the play’s classic “who-dun-it” formula. “You always get those moments of ‘oh, maybe it’s not gonna happen’ and then it comes together in a way that’s satisfying, and you can go home feeling like all is well in the world after all — maybe.”
“You’re in your own horror film,” Jodi Dominick (Margot Wendice) added, describing her role of the jaded wife. “You get to play all these different broad ranges of emotions and tactics. Dissecting the play and trying to figure out who knows what, and what just happened, and where we are — those conversations are really fun to have in the [rehearsal] room.”
Kawa is no stranger to plays with dramatic themes, acting in several Shakespearean productions including “Othello”, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Much Ado About Nothing”. Kawa said “Dial M for Murder” features modern language and high stakes.
“It’s so much more technical than we thought it would be,” Kawa said of the play. “The vocabulary is very basic but it’s still a heightened language, and it’s still really high stakes. Something that we’re all really bringing from our Shakespeare experience is the ability to lift those stakes, keep the urgency and stay a step ahead of the audience.”
Dominick described Margot and Maxine’s relationship as a “meeting of the minds”, both women possessing a genuine admiration for the wit and creativity written into both of their characters.
“Margot and Maxine are lovers. Margot, because of where she comes from, her place in the world and the time period that it’s set, can’t really fully live in her truth because of the consequences of that. I don’t want to say that there’s a happy ending with them but they’re in love,” Dominick said.
Kawa described Dominick as a pleasure to work alongside, highlighting the actress’s ability to fully embody her character.
“She’s so present and she’s so alive in her body and in her expression. Getting to play the immediacy of that relationship comes just so naturally,” Kawa said. “No acting required. Here she is giving her everything in every moment. How can you not love that and want to preserve it and want to protect it?”
Maxine’s success as an author adds a layer of tension to her dynamic with Tony, establishing yet another reason for him to be jealous of her. Kawa expressed how art is often fueled by passion and how the “frustrated artist” can be a dangerous trope to encounter.
“Frustrated artists are dangerous people because that [energy] has to go somewhere, and when it doesn’t go to the light, it goes the other way,” Kawa said. “I’ve certainly had that experience in my life when I feel like I don’t have an outlet. The emotions get bottled up and I get unhealthy.”
After any performance, the adrenaline rush for these actors is indescribable. Coupled with content centered on murder, romance, betrayal and other pulse-pounding themes, this play could easily be described as the opposite of a relaxing nighttime routine.
“I always find it hard right after work to just go home,” Dominick said, sharing how she unwinds after an intense performance. “We all have our rituals, whether that’s going home and reading or going out and having a drink, or socializing with people. I’m definitely somebody who likes to go home and recharge.”
Kawa echoed a similar sentiment, explaining how theater allows actors to leave those emotions on the stage.
“That’s part of what I love about theater is there’s a ritual for it,” Kawa said. “There’s a space for it. We enter the space, we put on our makeup, we put on our costumes, we become the character, and then you get to take it off and go home, and you get to leave a part of yourself with the audience.”
Although murder is one of the most intriguing themes of the play, the romance between Maxine and Margot is described by Kawa as filled with passion and chemistry.
“I cannot wait to put it in front of people,” Kawa said. “There is a lot of chemistry written into the relationship and it mostly comes out through conflict, which is where we see love most of the time. The opposite of love is indifference, not hate, and there’s definitely no indifference in this relationship.”
It’s no mystery why audiences will love Jodi Dominick and Carie Kawa as Margot and Maxine in this hair-raising performance of “Dial M for Murder” from Aug. 8-30 at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival.
