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.

the most disturbing production I have seen of Screw was a play version at the Altrincham Garrick, nearly two years ago. A non professional company did it on a nearly empy stage, save for a dolls house version of Bly, with lots of discarded toys covered in dead leaves. Gauzes kept fluttering down throughout the action making it easy for Quint to be half glimpsed. The two kids were brillinat doing very nasty things to dolls when acting out the backstory of Quint and Jessel. Miss Grey arrived like a galleon at full sail, and gradually lost most of her clothing, making her end up like miss Jessel who was presented in just her victorian underwear. Music, that seemed like Philip Glass, was used throughout and was most unsettling. A very scary production that managed to have the real but dead Miles and the ghost Miles on stage at the same time.
The Garrick come up with some interesting productions some times. They are just about to do Brassed off with a huge band, then La Cage for the umpteenth time. Not sure about that though.

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

Beautiful lighting, excellent orchestral playing. I didn't warm to ta couple of the voices - Ann Murray's vibrato was huge and little ugly though she acted the role brilliantly, and the tenor was very shrill (too "Peter Pears") for my liking.

And oh, those bloody servants.

Wish they'd spent a bit of time nailing the floorboards down properly too ... squeak, squeak, squeak.

Overall - a little disappointed I'm afraid.