Review: Dial M for Murder by Jarrott Productions
by David Glen Robinson
Dial M for Murder is for fans of crime dramas. It's not at all a whodunit, but rather a think-heavy chess puzzle of crime and sexual and emotional entanglements, leaving audience members who don’t know each other comparing notes on clues at intermission. How could it be otherwise with Natalie D. Garcia as lead actor? And with a plot-tumbling surprise? And with Dave Jarrott directing?
The story is set in a well-appointed flat (apartment) in London in the early 50s, contemporary with the publication of the play. The Jarrott Productions set is the best set I have seen in Trinity Street Playhouse with the possible exceptions of Deathtrap and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? a few years ago. Every surface and every prop held potential clues to the story. And beware—there are red herrings!
The well-to-do and apparently child-free Wendices have a difficult life together, in part because of their careers in literary publishing but more immediately because of a visitor from a deeply intimate, potentially humiliating, and more successful past. This tangled skein seems to have only murder for its possible unraveling. But it gets tighter from here; Alexander the Great had greater success with the Gordion knot. Revealing anything more about the story would provide one or more spoilers, unfair to potential audiences.
Devin Finn as set designer and Kaitlyn Hartnagel as properties designer worked together seamlessly to make props and clues function so everything of importance was perceptible to the clue-mongering audience. Likewise, Mike Ooi and Jason Graf as combat and intimacy choreographers successfully taught the actors to tear up bodies without tearing up the set or smashing props. Amanda Cooley Davis as dialect coach kept the American actors from falling out of their modern English accents.
The star of the show, as in many others, was Natalie D. Garcia, who played Maxine Hadley, the superbly styled and coifed writer of detective novels who takes a keen interest in the inhabitants of the Wendice flat. Garcia’s reactions are lightning quick. Eyelash flickers insist we read her mind before she speaks her sharp lines. She tells the whole story with the mimesis of moods and attitudes. It's rare indeed that an actor can convey such depths of meaning.
Mike Ooi is Inspector Hubbard. Late of Filigree Theatre’s Antigone and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Ooi is on the rise as a dramatic actor. His vocal control provides clarity for messages essential to the audience. Ooi's characterizations always seem to have an aura of humor about them, an extra layer that makes his Inspector Hubbard particularly memorable.
The other well-cast and highly talented actors in Dial M for Murder are Devon Ragsdale as Margot Wendice, Justin G. Smith as Tony Wendice, and Zachary Gamble as Lesgate. They fill out the cohesive and exciting ensemble that enacted this dramatic stage story so well produced by Jarrott Productions.
Dial M for Murder
by Frederick Knott
Jarrott Productions
April 10 - April 27, 2025
Black Box Theatre, 4th floor, First Baptist Church
901 Trinity Street
Austin, TX, 78701
April 10-27, 2025
Performances Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 2:30 pm
Official Champagne toast Opening on April 11th
Trinity Street Playhouse, located inside the First Baptist Church at 901 Trinity Street in downtown Austin, 78701
Ticket prices range from $15-$35 and advance reservations are strongly suggested as this is sure to be a sold out run.
Reserve now for best seats at Jarrott Productions’ Ticketweb page.
