Letter Perfect

Max Halliday, an American mystery writer, comes to England to “rescue” former lover Margot Wendice from her notoriously jealous husband, Tony. But when Max arrives, Margot tells him that Tony has settled down and that the marriage couldn’t be cozier. So Max returns to New York and the audience gets to go home early.

Well, no.

Frederick Knott’s Broadway hit “Dial ‘M’ for Murder’ ” has been filmed thrice: most famously in 1954 with Ray Milland and Grace Kelly as Tony and Margot; as a 1981 TV movie with Christopher Plummer and Angie Dickinson; and as the 1998 feature film “A Perfect Murder,” starring Michael Douglas and Gwyneth Paltrow, which aired on network television just last week.

Like Knott’s other well-known suspense play, “Wait Until Dark,” it’s always worth seeing again, even if you’re familiar with the convoluted mechanics of the plot (which the Douglas film changed somewhat). And what luck, there’s a production of “Murder” playing for the next two weekends at the Arts Council Center in Thousand Oaks.

Ronald Rezac and Vivien Latham star as the lovebird Wendices, with Allan J. Favish co-starring as the befuddled and thwarted writer. Michael Jordan, who directed the play, is featured as C.A. Swann, from whom Tony says he wants to purchase an automobile.

It’s odious to give away too many plot details, but the title of the play indicates that a policeman or two might appear on the scene before all’s finished, and so they do--Palmer Scott as a Columbo-like inspector and Flynn Michael Bradley as an officer.

The cast is consistently good, and the set--constructed by Will Shupe and S.B. Murray--is more ambitious than it looks: During one of the two intermissions, you should take a close look at the photos and trophies on the mantel over the Wendices’ fireplace.

DETAILS

“Dial ‘M’ for Murder” continues through Dec. 17 at the Arts Council Center, 482 Greenmeadow Drive (off Moorpark Road) in Thousand Oaks. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m. Tickets for all shows are $10; $8 students and seniors. For reservations or further information, call 381-2747.

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It’s becoming increasingly popular to post one’s resume on a personal Web site. David Sadka has gone at least one step better, turning his into a one-man show in an ambitious production at the Ojai Center for the Arts.

Born and raised in Meridian, Miss., and initially spurned by his schoolmates, Sadka became a textbook overachiever, reaching magna cum laude at Duke University (his father, a first-generation American, didn’t want young David attending a “Yankee” college like Harvard). Sadka also attended Oxford (England, not Mississippi) and interned in several Washington, D.C., offices before becoming an apparently successful investment banker--all before his 25th birthday. After all that, Sadka embarked on a spiritual quest (in an earlier time, he would have been a hippie) that brought him to Ojai.

In other locales, Sadka’s presentation might be taken as anything from pretentious to downright dippy: He appears dressed as some sort of itinerant Asian mystic and remains barefoot, even in street clothing. But in Ojai (if one were to indulge cultural stereotyping), he’s just another artist or self-help guru.

Although probably not as “earth-shattering” or “breathtaking” as Sadka’s description indicates, the production is quite impressively staged by director Ken Roht. Of special note are the multichannel sound--mind-blowing, perhaps--by Rick Lunn (at last, a local community theater sound person who knows when to fade instead of cutting off abruptly), and Jim Parsons’ frequently lovely video projections.

As for Sadka, he’s a personable fellow who has a lot of story to tell and just 80 minutes in which to tell it. The less spiritually minded among us might enjoy more detail about the real-world activities he condemns in retrospect.

DETAILS

“In Pursuit of an Inkling” continues Saturday at 8 p.m. and concludes Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Ojai Center for the Arts, 113 S. Montgomery St. Tickets are $15; $10 students and seniors; and may be purchased at Ojai Creates and Mail Boxes Etc. in Ojai or at the door. For reservations or more information, call 677-1563.

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Todd Everett can be reached at teverett@concentric.net.