TURN OF THE SCREW
out of 5
Stage 9, Telus Phone Museum
Henry James’ gothic horror story comes to life in this engrossing stage adaptation by Jeffrey Hatcher, featuring Aequilux Productions’ Darrell Portz and Shanni Pinkerton.
It’s not an easy thing to cast multiple characters and a narrator using just two actors and I couldn’t help imagining how it might have been with a couple of extra bodies to portray the folks in the bare-bones set of Bly country manor.
The actors do a nice job maintaining the flow in Hatcher’s script. They move back and forth between quick, concise dialogues and direct exposition to the audience, though at some points the pacing calls for more room to breathe, more time for the mood to develop.
Pinkerton is excellent as the new governess at the estate, first a bit timid, then perplexed, ultimately obsessed in confronting the mystery that surrounds her young charges, quiet Flora and uneasy Miles.
Portz has his work cut out for him, taking on several extra roles along with the narrator, using only his face and voice to differentiate between them with no costume changes.
Curiously his stretch as housekeeper Mrs. Grose was one of the more convincing parts, but using only one actor for all this still dilutes things.
It’s the haunting good tale that pulls the audience along.