Baltimore’s Everyman Dials Up the Suspense
Everyman Theatre artistic director Vincent M. Lancisi spills the thrills and chills of plotting "Dial M for Murder."
‘Tis the season when performance stages fill up with Nutcrackers, companies dust off their Scrooges, and Baltimore’s Everyman Theatre tends to go the more unconventional route of ringing in the holidays with murder.
“We have this twisted tradition of doing murder mysteries during the holidays,” jokes Everyman artistic director Vincent M. Lancisi, “which people seem to love.” Audiences are already loving the company’s latest, Dial M for Murder, which had already extended its run before playing previews to sold-out houses.
“It’s so exciting to know that there’s a hunger out there for people to see this play,” says Lancisi, who is directing Jeffrey Hatcher’s new adaptation of the 1952 stage play by Frederick Knott.
Most people know Dial M for Murder from Alfred Hitchcock’s famous film adaptation, its images of Grace Kelly struggling against her strangler ingrained in their heads. But, as Lancisi points out, it was written in the ’50s, set in the ’50s, and society has evolved since Knott’s original story of a jealous husband plotting to kill his adulterous, wealthy wife.
“And because Jeffrey Hatcher is both an excellent playwright and adapter — this is our third adaptation of his that we’ve done — he did some things to the story that make it more thrilling and scary than even [the] original.”
Refreshing the story with a queer angle, Everyman’s Dial M for Murder also aims to dial up the suspense. “It’s always the moment before something happens that’s scary as hell,” Lancisi says.
“It’s almost more about the moment before, and the anticipation, than it is about the actual moment. Having said that, we have a really amazing fight choreographer who has staged the murder in such a way that people scream. I mean, you know it’s coming, you see it coming. It comes. And it scares you in ways you didn’t think it was going to scare you.”
For Lancisi and company, the scares are undeniably part of the joy of doing a show like Murder.
“The whole cast are all company members, and they’ve worked together a bunch of times,” says Lancisi. “And so they know each other in the way that family members know other family members, and they call each other out all the time, and they know what scares each other and they know what makes them laugh.”
The relationships enrich the performances, Lancisi says. “They’re really solid in their roles, so it’s fun to watch them. They’re having a really good time performing this, and it comes through. And the audience, I think, picks up on it. I think they love that.”
Dial M for Murder runs through Jan. 7 at Everyman Theatre, 315 W. Fayette St. in Baltimore, Md.
Tickets are $29 to $86. Call 410-752-2208 or visit www.everymantheatre.org.
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