Toby Schmitz and Geraldine Hakewill as Jack and Bella. Photo: Brett Boardman
This production of Gaslight is a beautifully polished work that keeps audiences guessing – no mean feat for period drama. In their clever adaptation of Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 play, Johnna Wright and Patty Jamieson have kept the nuances of Victorian Gothic but given new impetus to the play’s principal female character Bella, the subject of what we now call ‘gaslighting’.
Set in the late 1800s when gaslight was still newfangled and Freudian theories about female hysteria and inferior minds were all the go, this Gaslight introduces newlyweds Jack (Toby Schmitz) and Bella (Geraldine Hakewill). The pair lives in a substantial, dark wood-panelled house in a less than totally fashionable but still well-to-do area of London. Dark green velvet curtains shroud sunlight from the drawing room’s bay window and a staircase can be seen leading to the upper rooms – and to the attic, from which Bella hears strange noises. Jack disabuses her of such foolish notions, referring constantly to her ‘illness’ and the sad fact that her mother was deemed insane. In seeking confirmation of Bella’s erratic imagination, he enlists the help of the housekeeper Elizabeth (Kate Fitzpatrick), who is conveniently hard of hearing, and later, the somewhat suspect new addition to the household staff, an insolent maid called Nancy (Courtney Cavallaro). When things in the house go missing, Jack says Bella forgets that she has hidden them. Bella begins to doubt her own sanity. But is it madness or manipulation?
The staging and costuming (Renee Mulder) are sumptuous, immediately drawing us into this time gone by; the lighting (Paul Jackson) is as atmospheric as it must be, given the changing moods and gaslighting – literal and psychological – that is taking place; and then there are the equally important sound effects (Paul Charlier), ranging from thunderclaps, notes of doom to mysterious noises off. These elements, together with a fabulous cast directed by Lee Lewis come together to work exceedingly well.
Having recently watched George Cukor’s 1944 Gaslight film (starring Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman and Angela Lansbury), I thought I knew how the plot would unfold, but I was wrong and it was wonderful to see how this new adaptation works, and brings with it contemporary understandings of abusive domestic power plays and psychological stress. Moreover, in Wright and Jamieson’s work, Bella does not rely on a knight in shining armour to appear on her doorstep and show her the way forward and it is fascinating to watch Hakewill’s Bella’s gradual realisation that her husband is not at all the man she thought he was.
Schmitz is, of course, a perfect Jack –all suave concern and consideration for his ‘poor Bella’, but it’s not giving anything away to say we know he has a much darker side. What exactly is his end game? Fitzpatrick’s Elizabeth sees all and says nothing, putting up with the master’s and mistress’s moods and demands like a good servant should – unlike Nancy, who we know from the start is probably up to no good. Cavallaro has fun with this most unsatisfactory and dissatisfied domestic.
Gaslight comes to Sydney from a successful season in Melbourne, so it is, as you would expect, nicely run in. Schmitz and Hakewill are totally believable in their roles; especially memorable are some of the later scenes when Bella’s gentle sparring with her husband takes on an edge. Their performances are timed to perfection. And it would be a spoiler to say exactly why Fitzpatrick had the audience cheering in one of the final scenes, but suffice to say it remains deeply memorable.
This Gaslight is that rare theatrical show, a thriller that really does keep its audience gripped from beginning to end. Recommended.
Until 15 September at Roslyn Packer Theatre, Sydney
Tickets: $69.90-$159.90, plus $8.50 transaction fees
More www.gaslightplay.com.au
