Double Indemnity – Richmond Theatre review

Mischa Barton (Phyllis Nirdlinger); Ciaran Owens (Walter Huff) in Double Indemnity at Richmond Theatre

What should have been the perfect murder …

Fans of Film Noir will enjoy this stage adaptation of James M Cain’s novel Double Indemnity, made famous by the 1944 film directed by Billy Wilder with Barbara Stanwyck as the femme fatale.

Ciaran Owens, in the lead role as Walter Huff, the insurance salesman who tries to commit the perfect murder in partnership with one of his clients, looks uncannily like Fred MacMurray, who made the role famous in the black and white film, and the set design and lighting crew have done a fabulous job of recreating the Film Noir atmosphere.

Ciaran Owens 

Just as the directors of the film genre used shadows and darkness to evoke the dark and desperate mood of the 1930s American Depression, here set and costume designer Ti Green and lighting designer Joshua Gadsby have brought that filmic quality to the stage with a bleak set made of what looks like galvanised steel, open to the sky to reveal the back of the Hollywood sign on the hills outside Los Angeles above.

Ciaran Owens; Joseph Langdon (Mr Norton); Martin Marquez (Keyes) 

The story moves between the mansion of Phyllis Nirdlinger and her husband, the victim, to Walter’s office, with scenes on the road and the railway tracks and finally aboard ship – no easy job on stage.

Mischa Barton (TV: The O.C.) makes her UK stage debut as the cold-hearted murderer who wants to cash in on her husband’s insurance. It is Walter who comes up with the double indemnity idea – double the payout if Mr Nirdlinger dies as the result of an accident on the railway.

He doesn’t reckon with the intelligence of his boss Keyes, played by Martin Marquez (TV: Hotel Babylon). Not keen to lose $50,000, which would sink the firm, the wily insurance man does not accept Mr Nirdlinger died by falling from a train or that it was an accident.

(L) Mischa Barton with Ciaran Owens; (C) Oliver Ryan (Mr Nirdlinger); (R) Martin Marquez 

The problem I always have with these crime thrillers is why anyone would decide so easily to commit murder with a stranger. It’s a done deal without any agonising. The morality of it is not considered or mentioned. Conscience does not even figure in the equation. Walter is intellectually attracted by the idea of getting away with murder and physically attracted to the very beautiful and manipulative Phyllis.

When he is asked later on why he did it, he says there seemed no reason not to. The agonising comes later as it all starts to unravel.

This is a slick production. Martin Marquez as Keyes commands the audience’s attention with the force of his stage presence and his character wins our respect with his logical reasoning as he unpicks the fiction presented in the insurance claim and gets down to what really happened, with dramatic consequences.

Double Indemnity is on at Richmond Theatre until Saturday 7 March 2026.

Book tickets: Double Indemnity

Photographer Manuel Harlan 

Top: Gillian Saker (Walter’s secretary Nettie) with Ciaran Owens; Row 2: Sophia Roberts (Phyllis’s step-daughter Lola Nirdlinger) with Joseph Langdon (her boyfriend Nino Sachetti ); Row 3: Ciaran Owens with Miscah Barton in the scene on the train; Bottom: Double Indemnity poster

Read more stories on The Chiswick Calendar