It's just over a week past Halloween, and less than a week since we said goodbye to the 13th annual
Twin Cities Horror Festival. But spooky season is still with us, for multiple reasons. One of those reasons is
Gremlin Theatre's new production of The Turn of the Screw, a chilling ghost story that feels like a continuation of TCHF. So if you're not ready to turn the page from Halloween to Christmas yet, go see this expertly executed classic ghost story. an allegory about the very real evils in our world!
In
Henry James' late 19th Century novella, a man tells a story told to him by his governess when he was a boy. The events in question unfold over seven days during the governess' first assignment. Local playwright Jeffrey Hatcher adapted the story into a 90-minute two-person play in the '90s, and it's brilliantly constructed, containing both his trademark with and a real feeling of horror. In Gremlin's production, Julia Valen plays the governess, and Gremlin's Artistic Director Peter Christian Hansen plays all the other roles, including the master of the house, the housekeeper, the little boy, and various spooky sound effects. I don't want to say too much about the plot, because it unfolds in such perfect suspense and anticipation, that I don't want to ruin it for anyone. Suffice it to say it involves a governess with the best of hopes and intentions about her new position (which means things are sure to go wrong), a little girl who does not speak, a little boy who was kicked out of school because of "unspeakable" acts, a cowering yet dependable housekeeper, a Gothic tower, a stormy lake, ghostly apparitions in a stately home in the English countryside, rumors of lust and suicide, and an ambiguous ending. What more does a spooky story need?*
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Julia Valen as the governess (with Peter Christian Hansen)
(photo by Alyssa Kristine Photography) |
This two-person cast is terrific. Julia is so great as the governess, transforming from the naive and hopeful young woman excited about her dream job, to a desperate woman in real distress as it all starts to fall apart. But Julia's performance also makes you wonder if the governess is seeing ghosts or inventing them as part of some twisted game. Peter believably transforms from one character to the next without the aid of wardrobe (he remains in the elegant suit of the wealthy master of the house throughout the show, designed by Sarah Bauer). With a slight change of physicality and voice (with help from dialect coach Keely Wolter), he embodies the nervous housekeeper, the mischievous boy, and more.
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| Peter Christian Hansen (photo Alyssa Kristine Photography) |
I first saw this play 12 years ago, a production by Torch Theater at the old Theatre Garage, directed by David Mann. He returns to direct this production, and it's every bit as well-paced and tension-filled as I remember that one to be. The witty banter is quick and sharp, but the suspenseful moments are allowed to play out in their own time, the audience squirming as things get spookier. The Gremlin stage is bare except for a stately period chair in one corner, and a massive staircase ascending into the darkness in the other. All areas of the intimate thrust stage are used, entrances and exits and sounds coming from all directions, for an almost immersive experience. The lighting and sound design ratchet up the tension (set and lighting design by Gremlin's resident Technical Director Carl Schoenborn, sound design by Aaron Newman).
