>>PREVIEW
COLUMBO: PRESCRIPTION MURDER
Starring: Trevor Leigh
Runs until April 9
Vertigo Theatre (Tower Centre)
Lieutenant Columbo, one of television’s most iconic detective characters, was built on the premise that there was more to the seemingly dishevelled mess beneath a rumpled overcoat than first met the eye.
In fact, though Columbo became best known as a recurring character in a series of made-for-TV movies, he was first seen in William Link and Richard Levinson’s Prescription: Murder, a play currently being remounted by Vertigo Mystery Theatre.
From the original 1968 pilot based on Prescription: Murder, to the series’ final incarnation in 2003’s Columbo Likes the Nightlife, the ostensibly naive character ran through 35 years of innocuous prodding and "just one more thing." Colombo’s television run was such a significant element of the character that even Vertigo’s Columbo, played by Trevor Leigh, wasn’t aware of the show’s theatrical beginnings before artistic director Mark Bellamy called him to play the role. As to the show’s endurance, Leigh has his own theory.
"They figured out the formula from the work and they never deviated from that formula," he says. "From the very first play, Columbo doesn’t arrive until after the murder has been committed, he’s not in the first act, and he’s always in surroundings where he’s never in his own comfort zone – it seems that all the people who were murderers are all wealthy. So I think initially it was a hit, and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That’s certainly the TV way."
The archetype for the Columbo formula, Prescription: Murder begins with the revelation of an affair between psychiatrist Dr. Roy Flemming and his "patient," Susan Hudson. In traditional villainous style, the two plot the death of Dr. Flemming’s wife, Claire, whose stubborn refusal to grant Dr. Flemming a divorce provides the justification for her murder. Only after the scheme has been outlined, Dr. Flemming’s hands have choked the life out of his wife, and the curtain has risen on the second act, does Columbo appear, asking pesky questions about the doctor
Of course, it’s Columbo’s ability to systematically interrogate his subjects while maintaining an apologetic air that made the character an enduring television personality. Not playing the good or the bad cop, Columbo’s questions are phrased as simple observations, gradually striking to the heart of the crime that the audience already knows.
"The big thing is that he’s not threatening, he’s never threatening, until later on when he sort of puts it all together and puts the screws to them," says Leigh. "It’s a whole thing of putting them at ease or thinking that he’s harmless initially, and then he just aggravates them by being so distracted. He does insult, but he does it in such an obscure, roundabout way, and always from a low status position."
The fun is all in the question, of course, in a play where the "whodunit" has been answered minutes into the first act. Columbo’s prescient barbs are nods to the dramatic irony of the audience’s foreknowledge, and the play is less concerned with the crime itself than it is with Columbo’s subtle journey toward the truth.
"In Richard III, (Richard) says at the beginning of the play, ‘This is what I’m going to do, now watch me do it,’ and it’s in the same sort of way, because the audience is in on it, so there’s a real joy in discovering what you already know. The audience is on your side, they’re cheering for you," says Leigh. "And there’s a turn in the play where you get to see what I believe is the real Columbo, where the mask is dropped, he stops playing naive and he drops the facade. And that’s really interesting."
In the end, the most enduring feature of every Columbo mystery has been the character of Columbo himself, immortalized by Peter Falk. The script describes Columbo, whose first name is never given, as "lumbering and homely, of indeterminate age," but the image that comes to mind first is certainly that of the actor who spent 35 years in the same rumpled overcoat. It’s a legacy that Leigh readily acknowledges, and isn’t shy about borrowing from.
"I have not ignored Peter Falk in my rendition of Columbo, because although there’s been a million Hamlets, there’s only ever been one Columbo," he says. "So as much as it’s my interpretation, it’s also Peter Falk’s interpretation. There’s all sorts of things I’m doing that I plain old stole from him.
"I can lumber as well as the next guy, I guess," he says modestly. |
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