By Dan O’Farrell.
A play-within-a-play is always good value, especially if it goes disastrously wrong. Shakespeare knew this well: he saved the whole last act of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ for the workmen’s hilariously inept production of ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’. In more recent times people have queued in their hundreds to watch ‘behind the scenes’ plays like ‘Noises Off’ and ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’. ‘Dial M For Mayhem’ – running until Saturday 1st February at the Theatre Royal, Winchester – taps amiably into this worthy tradition, and provides some genuinely funny moments to lighten the heart on the dankest of January nights.
Margaret May Hobb’s entertaining play is set entirely in the village hall of a fictional Highland town – Loch Shindig – where a touring company of actors has arrived in their dilapidated van to put on a performance of the hokey ‘50s thriller ‘Dial M For Murder’. The pre-show music reminds us that we are notionally in 1991, but the setting could be forty years earlier: the creaking props of the travelling theatre troop are well-matched to the only-slightly-less creaky environs of the hall and the highland weather soaking the characters as they come and go.
Harassed producer/director/actor Sean Farrell (played at a believably high-pitch of mounting stress by Luke Rhodri) is shown shepherding his unruly pack of ungrateful actors through the ‘get-in’ and set-up for the night’s performance, hindered by the fact that his two leads – Julian and Samantha – are constantly at each other’s throats. To add to his unease, the show’s key ‘draw’ – experienced thespian Rupert Valentine Tinglewell – is both workshy and unbearably flatulent, the only heater in the tumbledown hall creates a meltdown-inducing rumble and the local population is far more interested in a Billy Graham sermon over in Inverness. All this on top of the request from the hall’s custodian (Estrid Barton as the sweetest local theatre-enthusiast) to keep an eye out for Norman, the escaped pet rat.
The first half of the play meanders pleasingly through these gathering tribulations, and the actors have great fun with their occasionally caricatured roles. Joey Lockhart’s Julian is the classic insufferable snob – living on his ‘two seasons’ with the RSC and wondering how on earth he ended up touring the back of beyond. Not surprisingly, the playwright takes great pleasure in inflicting as many physical injuries as she can upon him. More depth is reserved for Alisdair Baker’s Rupert, who – when not parping furiously – gives the play a growing sense of pathos: the old ham still treading the boards although the clock’s ticking is increasingly deafening.
Isabella Inchbald’s take on the leading lady – Sam – also gives the play some moments of true emotion, as we learn the real reason for her hatred of Julian and glimpse the awkward possibilities of romance with Sean. Of course, there is only so much room for sentiment in a true farce, and Hobbs sweeps away these more pensive moments with a growing crescendo of hilarity caused by exploding heaters, hot irons applied to limbs, prop-eating rats and vomiting sound-technicians.
Once reached, this farcical pitch is well-sustained and the second act flies by. The true heart of the play, though, emerges from the impermeable commitment of Sean – abetted by stage-manager Andrew (a likable and funny turn from Theo Woolford). Taking theatre to the furthest reaches of the country is Sean’s genuine passion, and – as the programme notes make clear – in this he exemplifies the mission of the Middle Ground Theatre Company. Seen through this lens, ‘Dial M For Mayhem’ also works as a heartening reminder that an actor’s most valuable work might not be the big breaks on TV, or the RSC seasons in Stratford, but the cold and seemingly thankless hours spent putting on zero-budget productions in tiny halls to people who otherwise wouldn’t ever get a chance to see live theatre. Get out and support this funny and heartening production to save another set of actors from the cold: they’re not just for Christmas panto.
Dial M For Mayhem will be at Theatre Royal Winchester from Tuesday until Saturday 01 February 2025. Recommended age: 12+ (occasional bad language). For more information, or to book tickets, visit: theatreroyalwinchester.co.uk or call 01962 840 440.
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