Hitchcockian is an adjective perhaps used too often to describe suspenseful, thrilling cinema and theater, but the word seems entirely appropriate for the latest production from Two River Theater, a hard-working regional company located in Red Bank, New Jersey. Until Sunday, March 9, the Garden State venue is playing host to Dial M for Murder, adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher from the original story by Frederick Knott. Of course, Alfred Hitchcock tried his hand at a similar adaptation, one that became a beloved film in his expansive oeuvre.
This new production is directed by Jenn Thompson and stars Robert Eli, Olivia Gilliatt, Tony Roach, Triney Sandoval and Jasmin Walker. The plot surrounds a husband named Tony (Roach) who thinks up a “perfect” murder. The intended victim? His wife, Margot (Gilliatt). Everything is set and ready to commence, but Tony’s plans soon go awry.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Gilliatt, who is working once again with Thompson, the director. In fact, the actor has also appeared in another production of Dial M for Murder; that one was at the Bucks County Playhouse in Pennsylvania. Other shows she’s been include Partnership and CHAINS, both off-Broadway, and The 39 Steps at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, among many other plays. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What attracted you to joining this production of Dial M for Murder? You’ve performed in the piece before, right?
I have done Dial M for Murder before, but it was the original script and not Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation. There are significant changes to the script that made me eager to revisit the role — namely, that Margot, who’s married, has a significant ex-lover who is a woman, Maxine (played by the phenomenal Jasmin Walker) rather than an ex-lover who is a man, named Max. Margot’s complicated feelings about being Queer, and a 1950s London housewife, completely change her trajectory in the story. I’ve also wanted to work at Two River since I saw Hurricane Diane here in 2017.
How would you describe the character of Margot?
I think she’s got a rich interior life and a very practiced poker face. I don’t think she ever found her true calling (or even thought she was entitled to have one), and so she lives vicariously through her more colorful friends and lovers. But she’s stronger than she thinks she is.
What’s it like working with director Jenn Thompson?
Absolutely dreamy! Jenn thinks through story in terms of relationships and shifting terrain, and she’s wonderful at communicating what she sees and what she wants to see from us. So she can be after something very sophisticated and very specific, but it feels relatively easy to achieve (I hope). Being in the room with her is always fun, and she has great taste in collaborators.
Is pulling off a thriller on stage difficult? We don’t always associate that genre with the stage.
In some ways it is. What we’ve found in this rehearsal process is that it’s essential to track what the audience knows about each of the characters (their thoughts and motivations) at any given time. It’s not a mystery; the audience learns who’s got murder on the brain in the very first scene. The fun of a thriller is following who else learns about the murder plot, and when, and watching the fallout. So we have to be extra mindful of tracking how our characters suss each other out and change their strategies accordingly — like chess. And I’m pretty bad at real chess. Luckily Margot is more responsive and less strategic, under the circumstances.
Did you go to the source material or the Alfred Hitchcock movie for inspiration?
I believe that Jenn and the design team did — making references to the film’s costumes, for instance. And some design choices were made as deliberate departures from, or responses to, the setting of the film. But no: I try to avoid other portrayals of characters I’m playing. I love reading different editions of the script, though, to see the evolution of a playwright’s thought process about my character or different relationship dynamics over time.
When did you realize you wanted to be an actor?
In college, I took acting classes because I thought they would help me become a better director. But in a scene study class we were doing Chekhov’s farces (in my case The Marriage Proposal), and there were all of these hints in the script of elements that could be mined for comedy. My scene partner and I got really into taking those hints, and our version of the scene got pretty unhinged: I launched an apron-full of shelled peas at him, and he threw the flowers out of a vase to guzzle all of its water to quell a panic attack, as we both approached a state of apoplexy. I think we were just hoping for an academic, “Nice work,” from our professor, but hearing the laughter and delight of our classmates was intoxicating. I discovered the thrill of genuinely surprising people in that classroom. When I heard actual gasps I thought, “I could get used to this.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Dial M for Murder, starring Olivia Galliatt, continues through Sunday, March 9, at Two River Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey. Click here for more information and tickets.