What do you do when a marriage is no longer working? Tony decides that he needs to get rid of his wife Margot — but not her money — in the nail-biter “Dial M for Murder,” presented Nov. 30-Jan. 7, 2024, at Northlight Theatre.
Jeffrey Hatcher’s new adaptation of the Frederick Knott murder mystery runs at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 5, 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays, 7:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 2:30 p.m. (except Dec. 2) and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays, and 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. (Dec. 3 only) Sundays at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie.
Director Georgette Verdin is on a murder mystery roll. “I just directed a murder mystery at Raven called ‘Night Watch,’” she reported. “This seems to be my fall of crime-slash-psychological thrillers. The first psychological thriller I directed was last season for Teatro Vista, a world premiere by playwright Paloma Nozicka, ‘Enough to Let the Light In.’”
Verdin really likes the genre.
“It’s a particular kind of challenge trying to create that tension and a sense of the audience leaning in,” the director said.
Verdin, who became Northlight’s associate artistic director in April, was initially hesitant to take on the project — until she read Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation.
“I felt he really boiled it down to its essence and made it a more potent version of itself,” she explained. “Even more so what hooked me about it was the fact that he re-gendered Margot’s love affair from being a man to a woman.
“That really raised the stakes of the piece, especially taking place in 1950s England where homosexuality was illegal at the time. As a queer woman myself, I was interested in exploring that relationship.”
Lucy Carapetyan, who plays Margot, said that her character “was raised to be a good girl, to follow the rules. She comes from a family with some status so there’s some expectation of how she will behave in the world and who she will associate with. That comes into conflict, in this particular adaptation, with the fact that she is attracted to women.”
Carapetyan said that she is drawn to “that push-pull of what’s expected of you versus what you want to do for yourself. I’m a queer women married to a man. There is always this question of are the choices that I made in my life based on what was expected of me?”
Carapetyan likes the murder mystery genre because “It’s really enjoyable to lean into some of the more melodramatic storytelling,” she said. “The heart of the story is serious and important but we get to have fun telling it.”
“There’s something to be said about a bit of escapism, a bit of a thrill,” said Ryan Hallahan, who plays Margot’s husband Tony. “I’ve always been a big fan of the genre in movies and books and television,” he said. “It’s exciting to get to work on one that’s as well-known as this is, especially given the fact that it has been revitalized.”
Hallahan described his character as “a man who is slowly simmering with this anger that the world has failed to recognize him for the man that he is.” To add to that, the actor said, he has failed as an author, his family’s money has run out, and his wife isn’t as faithful as he thought she was.
Hallahan particularly enjoys the role because his character is “so often in control,” he said. “What’s even more fun is when that guy who’s in control starts to lose that control.”
‘Dial M for Murder’
When: Nov. 30-Jan. 7, 2024
Where: North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie
Tickets: $39-$89; $15 students
Information: 847-673-6300; northlight.org/events/dial-m-for-murder
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.