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The Matchmaker
Part of the 2003 Pitlochry Festival Theatre Season for full details of the theatre & season here .

Adapted by - James M Cain from the novel and film by David Joss Buckley.
Director - Ian Grieve.
Set and Costume Designer - Ken Harrison.
Lighting Designer - Mark Pritchard.
Company - Pitlochry Theatre Company .
Cast - here .
Venue - Pitlochry Theatre e-mail booking 01796 484626.
Dates and Times - here .
Run Time - 2 hours 30 mins including 15 mins interval though may run longer due to laughter.
Reviewer - Thelma Good.

Actors shine in painterly Film Noir.

Double Indemnity - Pitlochry Festival Theatre Production. Walter Huff - Guy Fearon and Barton Keyes - Jimmy Chisholm. © Keith Brame 2003.

Only two little things detract in this masterly staging of Cain's classic story about an insurance salesman who finds himself getting embroiled in a Californian oil magnet's death. Guy Fearon handles beautifully the role of Walter Huff, the guy who encourages the wife to take out insurance on her husband's life.

Told in scenes which go from his confession on a ocean liner to the insurance office, Huff's apartment, the Nurdlinger house and various other settings including a train's observation platform, Fearon never puts a foot wrong. Having picked up his copy of Stanislavsky's teachings in Pitlochry the day I saw the production I knew he takes his acting seriously. And he's right he can give away that book. He's so watchable and believable in a role which demands he slips from past to the play's present in a sentence.

Double Indemnity - Pitlochry Festival Theatre Production. Walter Huff - Guy Fearon and Phyliss Nurdlinger - Fiona Steele. © Keith Brame 2003.

As the wife Phyllis Nurdlinger, Fiona Steele keeps us guessing and almost liking her to the end. As she leans on the railings of Ken Harrison's set, atmospherically lit by Mark Pritchard, she becomes a siren figure, despite her wig too artificial and too 50's for such a well heeled 30's dame.

The set has venetian blinds, against or behind which Pritchard's lighting gives us shadows of figures enlarged. It not only fuses the noir genre the film Double Indemnity is a striking example of, but also evokes images of contemporary famous Scottish painter, Jack Vettriano's canvases which exude drama and desire. By employing a sliding staircase and platform, the action moves fluidly from scene to scene, only the carried on and off sofa diluted the slick feel.

As the young Harvard-educated head of the Insurance company, Jamie Chapman's Charles Norton is the good looking and essentially honest to the company counterpoint to both Huff and Jimmy Chisholm's driven Barton Keyes. Keyes was Huff's mentor and his investigatory role has Chisholm giving us a man who though loving his once pupil still pursues the death that doesn't add up until he solves it.
Mention must be made of the uncredited but very well judged sound which was also flimic in effect but never distracting. Crisp direction by Iain Grieve ensures the story's twists and back and forward style never flag and always interest where all the cast create a Pitlochry production where actors shine in painterly Film Noir.
© Thelma Good 17 May 2003 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com

Cast:

Walter Huff - Guy Fearon.
Phyllis Nurdlinger - Fiona Steele.
Barton Keyes - Jimmy Chisholm.
Lola Nurdlinger - Louise Bolton.
Nino Sachetti/Train Conductor - Philip Hazelby.
Charles Norton - - Jamie Campbell.
Herbert Nurdlinger - Dougal Lee.
Jackson/Hospitial Porter - Moray Treadwell.
Belle/Nurse - Louise Davidson.

Double Indemnity's Dates & times of Performances:- .
May Thursday 15th May, 2pm, Thursday 15th May, 8pm, Saturday 17th May, 8pm, Saturday 24th May, 2pm, Thursday 29th May, 8pm.
June Wednesday 4th June, 8pm, Saturday 7th June, 2pm, Thursday 12th June, 8pm Monday 16th June, 8pm, Friday 20th June, 8pm, Saturday 28th June, 8pm.
July Thursday 3rd July, 8pm, Tuesday 8th July, 8pm, Wednesday 9th July, 2pm, Saturday 19th July, 8pm, Friday 25th July, 8pm, Tuesday 29th July, 8pm, Wednesday 30th July, 2pm.
August Monday 4th August, 8pm, Saturday 9th August, 2pm, Wednesday 13th August, 8pm, Tuesday 19th August, 8pm, Wednesday 20th August, 2pm, Monday 25th August, 8pm.
September Wednesday 3rd September, 8pm, Saturday 6th September, 2pm, Saturday 13th September, 8pm, Friday 19th September, 8pm, Friday 26th September, 8pm.
October Wednesday 1st October, 8pm, Tuesday 7th October, 8pm, Wednesday 8th October, 2pm, and final performance on Monday 13th October, 8pm

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