Dial M for Mayhem offers nostalgic fun - Guildford dates

From October 8-12, the show is at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford; and from October 15-19, it plays the Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne.

Set in 1991, it follows a group of travelling actors from south of the Scottish border as they conquer the beautiful unforgiving landscape of the Highlands and Islands village hall circuit to perform Frederick Knott’s classic 1950s thriller Dial M For Murder….

Which is precisely what Middle Ground Theatre Company themselves did back in the early 90s, with playwright Margaret May Hobbs one of the cast back then.

“We performed Dial M for Murder,” recalls Middle Ground’s artistic director, producer and founder member Michael Lunney who designed and is directing this latest production. “We did five tours of the Highlands and Islands with various productions. The play is deliberately autobiographical. It is part fact and part embellished fiction. Did it all happen like this? No. Did some of it happen like this? Well yes. We have also taken on board 36 of years of touring with Middle Ground.

“But yes, we did tour in 1991 with everything coming from a battered Mercedes which was well past its Scapa Flow date, and this is about the altercations within the touring theatre company and the tensions that you get when you get a lot of people put together in a very confined space. It's about unrequited love and it's about redeemed love. But is also a play within a play. There is a 30-minute scenario where the audience get to see backstage during a production of Dial M for Murder set within a village hall. We have certainly put our input into this. It is partly based on the truth but we do also have other stories to tell, for instance about what the artistic landscape was like back in 1991. It's also about people beginning their careers with optimism and also about people ending their careers.” As for those 36 years for the company, Michael said: “I was born with great resilience and tenacity. I inherited it from my parents. There was a time when I thought my personal acting career might be leaving this behind but I'm glad I stayed. Is it glamorous? You bet it isn't. It is hard work but we get to tell stories. We act on the stage though I'm not acting in this. I directed and designed it but it is such a great joy to see other actors on the stage who are so, so talented. We do have our regulars over the years but each show we do from scratch. There are some people we've worked with a lot, but over those 36 years we have mounted more than 50 productions and that's a lot of people through the doors.

“Obviously the pandemic wasn't great. We had two tours planned. We were in the middle of a big Agatha Christie and we had about eight weeks still to run, and we had another tour planned for the autumn/winter.” But they survived: “But it is certainly still a mixed bag out there. I do think some people in the audience have still not come back, some people who are still a little bit frightened of congested spaces. I think the business right now is as hard as it ever been.”