[Job]

Saw the much vaunted production of Turn of the Screw last night. As with those nearby me I was bitterly disappointed. I really don't know what the papers were doing giving it such 5 star reviews. It was an incoherent mess (and of course quite unsuitable for a stage and auditorium such as the Coliseum's). The fatal mistake was having stage hands appearing every few moments, dressed as 'extra' servants at Bly which fatally undermined the sense of isolation Mrs Grose and the Governess experience. And all those noisy flats and fussy bits of furniture which needed moving so often. When Quint first appeared there were so many extras milling around one thought he was just another scene shifter. Musically it had its moments, especially Ann Murray, but overall a great let down.

You're dead right about those ghostly servants. They spend the entire evening pottering around Bly relocating the furniture, often to little purpose,, and every time they appeared I was thinking 'Ah, here come Quint and Miss Jessel', only to be disappointed. Then when Q & J DID enter I thought they'd just popped on to do a spot of scene shifting. Where was the sense of isolation in which the four principals are supposed to be living? It detracted from the air of menace that in other ways this production did so well. They all seemed quite cosy in their heavily populated country seat, whereas they really ought to be despairing in lonely desolation. How else to explain the Governess's fear of living far removed from her own 'kind'?

That said, everything else about the production blew me away, which is why I put it in my top six of the year (under the 'general chat' folder). I thought the cast sang and acted their socks off, and I really enjoyed most of the production ideas. Just that one big flaw.

Job