11 – 14 September
Having been gripped by Middle Ground Theatre Company’s The Verdict last year, a compelling stage adaptation of Barry Reed’s celebrated courtroom drama, I had high hopes for this evening’s opening night performance of Dial M for Mayhem, especially as this latest production reunites the same creative team of writer Margaret May Hobbs and director Michael Lunney. An affectionate homage to the Highlands and Islands Tours of 1991-1995 which saw the company tour shows such as An Inspector Calls and Spring and Port Wine, Hobbs and Lunney have drawn heavily on recollections of the actors and stage managers who endured all manner of trials and tribulations in their attempts to bring live theatre to the far-flung northern extremities of the British Isles.
Dial M for Mayhem employs the same play-within-the-play device used to such acclaim by Michael Frayn’s Noises Off, as well as the team that brought us The Play That Goes Wrong, seemingly with the intention of producing something in a similar comic vein. The premise of the show is simple: a group of actors arrive at the fictional Loch Shindig Village Hall on the latest stage of their tour of Frederick Knott’s classic 1950s thriller, Dial M for Murder. Chaos ensues as the company falls victim to the weather, internal tensions amongst the cast, and a curious collection of local inhabitants.
The first half is not without promise or positives: the ‘set’ comes to life as the cast prepare for the evening performance under hard-pressed ‘director’ Sean’s guidance (played enthusiastically by Luke Rhodri), all the while hinting at the back-stories and tensions of the different actors as the rise of the curtain nears. Eliza Langland has the best comic lines as Jean, a kindly local who oversees the Village Hall, while we sense fading celebrity Rupert Valentine Tinglewell, (Alasdair Baker) still clinging to memories of former cinematic glories, has a dark secret which inevitably must come to light. The stage is set, in every sense.
Which is why the second half is particularly disappointing. The characters’ story arcs, initiated in Act One, remain sadly undeveloped: Sean’s relationship with leading lady Sam is alluded to but frustratingly never explored; Tinglewell’s journey from Hollywood stardom in the 1950s, to the Highlands in the 1990s, via the Crossroads Motel, and a poignant hint at a possible terminal illness, is lost in pointless flatulence and farce, whereas frustrated Julian seems to spend most of the show simply shouting or over-enunciating his lines. It is hard to really care about characters from whom we feel rather detached. The reversal of the staging during the interval, which works so successfully in Noises Off in cleverly flipping the audience’s perspective, fails here, largely because references to Knott’s play are so few that we neither know, nor care, what is happening on the front of the stage while things fall apart backstage.
There is some salvation in the intentional farce in the second half, and some Fawltyesque slapstick humour which raises a few laughs and in which the cast showcase some skill in comic timing and physical theatre, but any dramatic momentum is dissipated by a couple of tedious and lengthy scene changes which contrive to make the play feel over-long.
Ultimately, Dial M for Mayhem relies a little too much on the type of cheap, low-grade humour which, for such a new play, feels very dated and which quickly wears thin. It is an enjoyable watch at times, but Dial M for Mediocre sits better.
★★☆☆☆ Tony Clarke 12 September 2024
Photography credit: LK Photography
