4 STARS. Con Crowley reviews Henry James's classic The Turn of The Screw, showing at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre until Saturday April 28th
Robert Workman Robert Workman Photographer
If you fancy gothic horror then get yourself down to The Yvonne Arnaud in Guildford this week to catch Tim Luscombe’s stage version of the classic Henry James ghost story, Turn of The Screw. This joint collaboration between Mercury Theatre Colchester and Wolverhampton Grand Theatre is two thirds of the way through its UK tour and stays at Guildford until Saturday April 28th.
Expect a psychological roller coaster as the central character, a young governess of two orphaned children, is caught up in an evil nightmare when she suspects the spirits of her predecessor and another former servant, who died in mysterious circumstances, are corrupting her two young wards.
Famously James’ novella is about ambiguity, leaving the audience to decide whether the deep and dark forces at work are in one person’s mind or being orchestrated by others.
Complete with ghostly silhouettes, and haunting music with explosive crescendos, the audience is left on the edge of their seats wondering whether this woman, played by Carli Norris, once a Slater sister in East Enders, is the perpetrator or victim of evil.
Norris certainly plays one hell of a neurotic nanny – conjuring up all sorts of deep and disturbing thoughts about her own state of mind as well as those of the other characters. Is the wholesome and kindly housekeeper Mrs Grose, played by Maggie McCarthy, part of the entrapment or a genuinely good egg?
Is Laura, played by Annabel Smith, who doubles as Mrs Conray and her older self, the tormentor or the tormented? She gives a sterling performance – sometimes a precocious little girl jumping about the stage goading her governess with sinister immaturity and at others playing herself years later pointing the accusing finger at the same women for being responsible for the mysterious fate of her brother.
Robert Workman Robert Workman Photographer
Michael Hanratty plays the brother Miles. In the credits he is just called “The Man” confounding the ambiguity. Expelled from school for who knows what, charming his way into the affections of his new governess and ultimately becoming the centre of her fixation, his innocence is certainly very questionable.
Henry James wrote the story at a time when the psychologist Freud was starting to become popular. Surprisingly given its very evil undertones it is supposedly based on a story told to him by the then Archbishop of Canterbury.
Whether it is about external evil forces or a genuinely troubled mind is anyone’s guess, but it is certainly a psychological thriller in the truest sense and subsequently inspired some famous cinema take-offs including Michael Winner’s The Nightcomers and Jack Clayton’s The Innocence.
Writing in the theatre programme, Tim Luscombe says that director Daniel Buckroyd asked him what he thinks actually happened in the story. Naturally enough he wished to know what he had in mind. His response was that after working on the scripts for many months he still didn’t know for sure, but he as the director he was free to make up his own mind, as long as the production tried to avoid coming down on one side or another.
That is easier said than done. I made up my mind quite quickly so I am not sure it succeeded.
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