TURN OF THE SCREW. To 23 April.
Bristol
THE TURN OF THE SCREW
by Henry James new version by Nick Dear
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Thu & Sat 2pm
Audio-described 23 April 2pm
BSL Signed 16 April 2pm
Pay What You Can (16-28 year olds) 18 April
Runs 1hr 40min One interval
Review: Stewart McGill, 7th April 2005
Ghost story become Feudian sexual drama, but, sadly, it creaks along
One of the great chillers for me in movie history is Jack Cardiff's black and white, The Innocents based on Henry James short tale Turn of The Screw. It really forced one to consider the presence of evil beyond death and the tortured manipulation of young souls by the jealous spirits of the dead. More recently the film The Others with Nicole Kidman sent those same shivers along my spine.
Simon Reade stages Nick Dear's television adaptation for Bristol Old Vic and, I'm sorry to say, it creaks along. Reade tells not so much a ghost story but a complex Freudian drama of sexual frustration and repression.
There is a decent argument for this and if the staging gripped then I would willingly buy it (I do, however, believe it's still an old fashioned ghost story by a master of the genre!). David Fielding's design is a striking but terribly ponderous series of rotating screens that revolve almost continually slowing down the action with noisy and, at times, clumsy style. Covered with scrawled commandments the point is made but where a cinematic fluidity would progress the story swiftly the design slows everything down.
The acting is, at times, overblown and maybe Jonathan Broadbent is now too grown-up' for Miles looking more like a Brideshead student than troubled schoolboy. I also felt that Dan Jones menacing sound score dragged us down rather than gripped and tingled.
There is nothing quite like experiencing a chilling ghost story in live theatre and I confess to being reduced to gibbering idiot on seeing The Woman In Black many years ago where the simplicity seemed to create a real atmosphere of terror and foreboding. Despite all the effects I felt Screw was a rather dull evening leaving me with a desire to revisit the movie and believe in the power of the dead over the living.
David Fielding stays at this address to both direct and design an all male Importance of Being Ernest next for Bristol Old Vic. This is a fascinating prospect. It will be unlikely to see how Bristol post David Farr continue to create exceptional stage work. I think Simon Reade is a superb producer but maybe Screw is a mistake in its execution.
Cast: Governess: Ruth Grey, Master: Vincenzo Pellegrino, Flora: Zoe Thorne, Mrs Grose: Carol Macready, Peter Quint: Nick Richards, Miles: Jonathan Broadbent, Miss Jessel: Sophie Ladds.
Creative Team: Director: Simon Reade, Designer: David Fielding, Lighting Designer: Paul Anderson, Composer/Sound Score: Dan Jones, Sound Co-Designer: Jason Barnes, Assistant Director: Anne Tipton
2005-04-11 09:41:32