Double Indemnity Review By Lynn Carroll

April 1, 2026

I have always preferred, when asked to review a play or show, to go in blind so to speak. Not to know anything about it beforehand means I can give an unbiased view which is not based on any previous knowledge of film, book or any other medium.

However, in this case I really wish I had done some research beforehand as, to put it bluntly, I could not make out what was going on throughout the first half. My first thought was how depressing and dark the stage setting was. It appeared to be some sort of huge underground warehouse, boiler room type place and throughout it served as office, home, railway station and more while the actors themselves pushed the odd prop on and off stage, the play continuing whilst this went on.

Having reviewed over 40 productions I am loathe to think I am losing my faculties but I really lost the plot in the first half and was somewhat confused by people walking on and off stage, a little of the dialogue too softly spoken (with very good American accents) which I could not hear and narration intertwined with the story being enacted at the same time. I will gladly raise my hands and confess it was probably ‘my bad’ as the new phraseology goes, but I would hate to think I was the only one in the entire audience who found this an extremely difficult play to follow.

Actors supposedly driving a car whilst standing still next to each other, standing to back of stage whilst not actually contributing to the scene being played out, walking around the stage like automatons instead of humans interacting all served to irritate, though I truly hate to say it, a great deal of imagination was required.

I guessed the play was set around the thirties/forties and on a brighter note the costumes perfectly suited that era. The men wore suits with high waist trousers, baggy legs and braces with below the knee dresses and skirts worn by the women.

There was a lot to recommend, my previous comments aside, and I am positive that this type of theatre has a lot of admirers. I certainly admired the delivery of dialogue and have great respect for actors remembering their lines so well, especially when they are lengthy. I must give praise to Ciaran Owens who played Walter Huff in that respect, although everyone played their part extremely well and I especially liked the character of Keyes.

I now wish to see the film on which this play was based and if I had done so beforehand I would definitely have seen it in a more enlightened way. The second half enabled me to see more clearly who was doing what to who and the plot became a lot clearer, maybe this was deliberate but maybe I was too impatient for clarity from the off.

It was not a ‘whodunit’, nor was it a mystery, we knew who was to be the victim and who killed him so if you are a fan of this genre of play, film and book you will very much enjoy this.