Mānoa Valley Theatre is kicking off the new year with “Dial M for Murder,” a play that stars Dwight Martin, the theater’s former producing director, as the mystery’s inspector.
“Chief inspector please! I am the chief inspector,” Martin told Aloha State Daily with a laugh, as he got into character.
The show, “Dial M for Murder,” runs Thursday, Jan. 22, through Sunday, Feb. 8, at Mānoa Valley Theatre. The original play by Frederick Knott was adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher. It was made famous by Alfred Hitchcock's film, released in 1954, which starred Ray Milland, Grace Kelly and Robert Cummings.
“It's a murder mystery whodunit thriller,” he said. “There's a concept that there is a perfect crime. And in this story, someone tries to set up the perfect crime, and it backfires.”
Martin was previously the producing director of Mānoa Valley Theatre for 38 years. The role was Martin’s second job out of college. He retired in 2019, as reported by the Star Advertiser. Prior to moving to the Islands, he attended four years of school in Indiana before transferring to Southwest Missouri State University, now known as Missouri State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in theater arts with an emphasis on acting and directing.
“It was a state university, and no one really had heard of their theater arts program, but they were training John Goodman and Kathleen Turner and Tess Harper — these major talents,” he said. “And I had the opportunity to go into that program.”
After college, Martin took a job as a producer for a small theater in North Carolina for three years. While at a national theater convention, he learned of a job opening at Mānoa Valley Theatre. Martin had never been to Hawaiʻi, but he took the job.
“Mānoa Valley Theatre is a very exciting place,” Martin added. “It produces — as we always did — a diversity of shows. There's musical theater for the crowd that likes that. There's drama and comedy for the crowd that likes that. It's a showcase of our Island talent. There's nothing as exciting as being in the room with a live storyteller, i.e. an actor, who's telling the story of the play.”
Martin joined Mānoa Valley Theatre in 1980, when it was just 12 years old, and continued to work there until it turned 50 years old, he said. In those years, the theater built a building and became a workplace for many talented people in the community.
While Martin was producing director for Mānoa Valley Theatre, he occasionally found himself on stage in acting roles.
How does it feel to be back on stage?
“Oh, I love it,” he said. “My college training was in acting and directing, but I had my middle class father's values of ʻBe responsible for yourself.’ So when an opportunity came up to get involved on the management and producing side, I took that opportunity — that was on the Mainland — and was happy to be working in my field, even though I wasn't the actor, or I wasn't the director.”
In “Dial M for Murder,” he plays a character who is professional, smart and very observant, he said.
“The regular police have already come and gone,” he said. “And so he comes with their notes, and he tries to fill the puka in the story, and he unravels more and more as he questions Mr. and Mrs. Wendice about what took place, what transpired. It’s clear that they are lying to him on multiple points. He's very sharp, so he picks that up immediately, and so that now casts suspicion that didn't originally exist. With the help of another character, they solve the crime but the solution isn't known until the very last moment.”
The theater only has about 160 to 170 seats, he added.
“You're right there,” he said. “You're part of the story. And I find that to be exciting. Then when you have a play like ʻDial M for Murder,’ which is a thriller and intense and a whodunit and a guessing game and so forth — you're part of that.”
Tickets are $25 to $47 and can be ordered online or by calling 808-988-6131.
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Katie Helland can be reached at katie@alohastatedaily.com.
