THE WALL STREET JOURNAL WSJ.

com

NY CULTURE | NOVEMBER 13, 2010

A Haunting Tale by Candlelight

Mood of 'Turn of the Screw' Is Heightened in a Period Home With Its Own Ghosts
By JUL IE STE INBERG

If October is a month for drugstore-endorsed commercial spookiness, November is a month for more
sophisticated eerie fare. At least that's the hope of Two Turns Theatre Company, which is putting on a
return engagement of "The Turn of the Screw," Jeffrey Hatcher's adaptation of Henry James's 1898 ghost
story.
James's account, which is by turns gothic, Freudian or anti-
imperialist, depending on what branch of literary criticism you
subscribe to, is by itself a neck-hair-raising story. The Two
Turns Theatre Company has magnified that effect by staging
the play at the Merchant's House Museum, the city's best-
preserved 19th century home, which is rumored to possess
ghosts of its own, and using only candles and a few lamps for
lighting.

The play ran at this venue last February and it was a wise idea
to return to the spot. The double parlors accommodate only 34
seats, which means the atmosphere, already crackling with the
promise of the supernatural, attains an almost-too cozy aura
that enhances the material. Because the two actors are entombed in the circle of seats, they're forced to
march back and forth, and if one of their dresses brushes the audience's feet, so much the better.

The story centers on a governess who has been sent to a country house to care for two orphans, Miles and
Flora, who are supported financiallyif not emotionallyby their uncle. Little by little, it is revealed that
their previous caretakers met sudden deaths and have returned to haunt the house's inmates.

Christina LaFortune plays the governess convincingly, tiptoeing around the audience's growing suspicion
that the ghosts might be a figment of a frazzled imagination. Vince Gatton superbly plays three parts: the
haughty uncle, matronly housekeeper and seemingly demonic Miles.

It's the interaction between Miles, who gleefully delights in being a "bad boy," and the governess, who
only wants to save his soul, that underpins the play and contributes most to the feeling of unheimlich,
where something is strange because it is too familiar, and in this case, a public manifestation of something
to be kept secret.
The lack of scenery and props don't preclude the play from inducing chills. With just a mirror at either
end of the room, there's nowhere else to turn to and nothing else to fixate on. It's a clever way to
embroider the audience into the tale, as it renders us as confused as the characters, determined to find out
exactly who is mad. Like "The Yellow Wallpaper" and "The Tell-Tale Heart," Mr. Hatcher's version is
conscious of what the audience's reaction might be, and capitalizes on that unease.

"The Turn of the Screw" has been adapted into a variety of mediafrom opera to films to ballet to even a
soap opera. This particular retelling, just 70 minutes long, is as spine-tingling as James might have
wished.