Having admired her work for many years, this year’s remount of Bygone Theatre’s The Rear Window finally provides a welcome opportunity to speak with Emily Dix. An artist whose work spans various genres, she is a writer, director, producer, designer and photographer and is renowned for her work with Bygone Theatre, a company she founded. As the company’s Artistic Executive Director, Dix has been instrumental in writing, producing, directing, and designing many of the company’s productions, including The Rear Window, which opens at Hart House Theatre this week. Under Dix’s leadership, Bygone Theatre has earned wide acclaim for revisiting, renewing, and reimagining classic works. The company often integrates detailed and responsive set designs and uses innovative technical elements in their productions.
Dix’s keen interest in vintage themes, true crime, and horror influence her theatrical projects. One of her most notable productions is The Rear Window, based on Cornell Woolrich’s short story “It Had To Be Murder”, which also inspired the famous 1954 Alfred Hitchcock film Rear Window, starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly. Dix’s adaptation is not a frame-by-frame recreation transferred to the stage but a psychological thriller that explores themes of voyeurism and the blurring lines between reality and perception.
The story centres on news photographer L.B. “Jeff” Jefferies, who, confined to his apartment with a broken leg, passes the time by observing his neighbours through the rear window of his apartment. He becomes particularly interested in one neighbour, Lars Thorwald. Jeffries notices suspicious behaviour from Thorwald, and convinced a murder has taken place, Jeffries enlists the help of his girlfriend Lena and his intern Charlie to investigate further. The story builds tension as Jeffries becomes increasingly obsessed with proving Thorwald’s guilt, despite skepticism from others.
Dix’s stage production, which first premiered in 2019, received critical and popular acclaim, earning multiple nominations and awards. The remount of The Rear Window features some returning cast members along with new faces: Oliver Georgiou as L.B. “Jeff” Jefferies, Kate McArthur in her award-winning role as Lena Hall, Cayne Kitagawa as Charlie Thomas, with Antonino Pruiti reprising his role as the menacing Lars Thorwald. Rounding out the cast are Simone Matheson as Mrs Thorwald, Rachel Frederick as The Dancing Girl, Sean Jacklin as The Working Stiff, Trinity Lloyd as The Newlywed Wife, and Jacob Dowdall The Newlywed Husband. This latest run incorporates new technical enhancements, adding depth to the already edge-of-your-seat narrative.
In an in-depth interview, Dix showcases the same precision with her wording as with her eye for detail. She reveals insights about her process as well as her vision for bringing this already acclaimed play with a bigger cast, expanded technical elements, presented in a new venue in partnership with the historic Hart House Theatre as venue sponsor and Bygone Theatre’s next production.
SesayArts Magazine: Emily, what inspired you to revisit The Rear Window for a remount?
Emily Dix: When we first did this production in 2019, it was our biggest to date, by far. We had basically gotten to a point where we felt that, either we needed to commit to being more like a community theatre, and stop growing in size, or we needed to go big and try to make a bit of a splash and get some notice. It was our 7th season, and we wanted to stand out. In a lot of ways it worked: We got some good press, I was happy with the show creatively, and we made the most in ticket sales we had on any show.
But, it was also more than double the cost of past productions, and no one on it was paid a fair wage. So much of the cost came from things that we had now invested in and owned (like the set), and then the venue. We always wanted to remount somewhere we could save a bit on the venue, and be able to pay everyone properly for their work. Initially the plan was to do it much sooner, but when 2020 rolled around and all of theatre shut down, things were put on an indefinite hold.
SesayArts Magazine: Looking back at the original production, what have you learned that influenced this remount? For instance, are there new elements or changes you’ve introduced in this remount to enhance or update the psychological thriller aspect of the play?
Emily Dix: I was open to reworking the script, but after doing a mini workshop with our leads, we really made very minimal changes. The main things that will be different in this are 1) The technical elements and 2) Two of our leads have been recast.
With more prep time and a larger crew working on this, we’ve managed to update some of the technical elements to better match what I had originally envisioned, and this time I’m not stuck doing a lot of that myself.
The two leading men, Oliver Georgiou and Cayne Kitagawa, are both new to the production and bring something very different to their respective characters, so it’s interesting to see how that changes some of the psychological aspects. I was lucky enough to work with Oliver last season in The Birds, and he in particular is very good at finding little moments that help build that creeping sort of suspense.
SesayArts Magazine: Given the iconic status of the Hitchcock film, how do you balance paying homage to the original with giving it a unique spin?
Emily Dix: I have been a huge Hitchcock fan my entire life, and for films made when they were, I don’t think anyone could have done better. He was the master. However, there is certainly something dated about a lot of them, especially when it comes to some of the darker elements of the stories.
Most films of his I watch and think, “oh, this would be so much better if he touched on this element”, usually something that’s a bit more “real” and would never have been shown in a film from that time. So when I’m working on an adaptation, or on a script that he once shot, I focus on those elements that, I’m sure occurred to him, but were left out for whatever reason. I think they are things that would seem obvious and natural to audiences today, who are used to something a lot more “gritty”, and when put alongside the stylized, very classic sort of “clean” dialogue, I think they make for a great shock.
I rarely consciously try to find ways to pay homage, because I just naturally do it, having been influenced by him for so many years. The one exception in this is the dress Lena wears in the final scene, which is a nod to an original from the film, because the design in the movie was fantastic. Otherwise, I just hope our building of suspense is good enough that it can pay tribute to his work without feeling like something made to mimic him.
SesayArts Magazine: As the director and a designer for the show, can you speak a little about how you integrate sound, props, and costumes to build the suspense and intensity of the narrative?
Emily Dix: Whenever I decide to do a show, the first thing I think about is colour. I choose a colour palette and something to inspire the overall style, and build from there. In this, it’s paintings by Edward Hopper, which have a sort of rich, glossy, surreal feel to them. Jeff is a photographer, and so photography from the time also inspired the look: stark contrast in the old black and white photos, and the deeply saturated look of early colour pictures.
Then I think about shapes – this takes place in NYC, he feels trapped, he’s looking out of a window in an old building – all of that suggests lots of narrow, vertical lines. Like a prison cell. So I look for stripes, and checks, and patterns that will all add to the feeling of things being repetitive, and looming. I bring those concepts to my set and lighting designer and they build the set with that in mind, and sort of paint the show with lights that will add to that feeling.
When I’m working on sound, I try to find ways to blend diegetic and non-diegetic sounds, so that any music or noise that is used starts off from a logical source in the set, even if it then builds into something more surreal.
When it comes to props, I go for realism, and I try to give the actors as many “real” things as possible, so they can play in the space in really authentic ways. They are all chosen first as something that fits the time period and Jeff’s life, and then for stylistic reasons, like the colour adding to the overall design. In Jeff’s case, he’s got tons of food in his apartment, but nothing is fresh. He has frozen dinners, takeout leftovers in the fridge, when his girlfriend Lena brings home groceries, it’s stuff like canned pork rinds and nuts and instant coffee. You know right away this is not a guy who takes care of his body, and not someone who has much time for things like cooking meals.
SesayArts Magazine: How do you blur the lines between truth and hallucination?
Emily Dix: Hallucinations often are inspired by something that is there in real life, and so I want to show what sort of things are influencing Jeff, and hopefully help the audience feel the creeping build of paranoia along with him.
SesayArts Magazine: Who do you think this play will appeal to? Do you have to be a lover of classic suspense to appreciate it?
Emily Dix: I think this show has quite a wide appeal, because we’ve really focused on making a solid, intriguing story above all else. There are lots of funny moments, so this isn’t something where you’ll come and feel stressed or scared throughout, because that gets exhausting. There are sweet moments and goofy moments that I think just highlight the drama and suspense, and hopefully are the types of things that lead to you sitting on the edge of your seat. If you love old movies, then the style will appeal to you, but even if you don’t, it’s a story that is still relevant today: all of us just spent a few years trapped inside, simultaneously distanced from one another while also seeing lots of really private moments through our phones, as people posted more and more online, trying to find a way to connect with one another.
That’s not so different from what Jeff is doing, watching people through their windows. And hopefully it’ll make people think about the kind of assumptions we make based on what we see through those narrow lenses. Jeff “knows” these people because he’s seen them day in and day out for weeks, just as we may follow people online and feel like we “know” them. But in both instances, we’re making a lot of assumptions because we’re only seeing a small snippet, something someone is choosing to show, even if it’s portrayed as being a “real” look into their lives. So this sort of takes that to an extreme.
SesayArts Magazine: What do you hope audiences will take away from this production or talk about on their way home?
Emily Dix: I want them to be discussing who the “bad guy” is. I can’t say too much without giving it away, but some things have been purposefully left a bit unclear, and I want to know that people are talking about what really happened. What assumptions do they make? Do they agree with Jeff’s version of what happened, or someone else’s? And does it matter?
If Jeff is right about everything he thinks, does that justify what he does? The original film was pretty black and white in terms of what happened and who was good or bad. I hope this shows things are rarely that cut and dry.
SesayArts Magazine: Given Bygone Theatre’s focus on – and talent for – producing historically accurate theatre, what plans do you have for further productions or adaptations of classic stories in the future?
Emily Dix: Likely our next production will be an adaptation of “Lifeboat,” a short story by John Steinbeck that was made into a 1944 film by Hitchcock. Steinbeck famously hated the film, and I hope that I can make a version that addresses the changes he was so unhappy to see.
This will be an interesting project because the entire show takes place in a lifeboat . All the actors are stuck in a boat for the entirety of the show, which obviously provides some really interesting challenges for staging. The way we’ll accomplish this is through projection mapping. We haven’t signed our agreements yet so I won’t say too much, but we do have some big partners coming on that will make it so we can do some really exciting things with projection, and we’re just waiting on confirming the venue so we can make a public announcement.
The Rear Window is on stage at Hart House Theatre at the University of Toronto until May 31, 2024. Reserve tickets at harthouse.ca.
© Arpita Ghosal, SesayArts Magazine, 2024
