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Synopsis Set in a four storied house in Victorian London, Mr Jack Manningham is cunningly trying to drive his nervous, timid and insecure wife Betty mad. He accuses her of hiding or losing things and humiliates her in front of the housekeeper and maid. But Mr Manningham is not all he seems. A visit from ex-detective Rough reveals to Betty that her husband has a past life even more sinister than the present.
Nearly 70 years after its premiere, Patrick Hamilton’s Victorian London-set psychological thriller Gaslight returned to the West End when Peter Gill’s revival, starring Rosamund Pike and Kenneth Cranham, opened last night (14 June, previews from 7 June) at the Old Vic for a limited season to 18 August (See News, 4 Apr 2007).
While Jack Manningham is out on the town each evening, his wife Bella (Pike), stays at home alone, believing she’s losing her mind: she can’t explain the disappearance of familiar objects, the footsteps overhead or the ghostly flickering of living room gaslights. However, questions about Jack’s behaviour and true identity are aroused following the unexpected arrival of Detective Rough (Cranham).
English novelist and playwright Hamilton (whose other big theatrical hit was Rope) wrote Gaslight for the stage in 1938. It was adapted for the British screen in 1940 and, four years later, was made into a much more famous Hollywood version directed by George Cukor and starring Ingrid Bergman, who won a Best Actress Oscar for her role as the psychologically terrorised young wife.
In the Old Vic cast, Pike and Cranham are joined by Andrew Woodall as the evil husband, and Rowena Cooper and Sally Tatum as housemaids who become embroiled in the evening’s intrigue. The production is designed by Hayden Griffin, with lighting by Hartley TA Kemp.
First night critics were all intrigued, if not shocked, by the Old Vic’s programming choice, but while most welcomed the revival of Hamilton’s admittedly old-fashioned and “creaky” piece, one found the play’s creakiness raised only inappropriate laughter. After her Whatsonstage.com Award-nominated performance in last autumn’s West End revival of Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke, Rosamund Pike received a fresh round of warm notices for her latest frail and “luminous” period beauty – “fair Rosamund alone is worth travelling a long way to catch”, declared one critic. There was also praise for Kenneth Cranham, whose previous stage credits include the title role in An Inspector Calls, as the “wily” and “unexpectedly funny” retired detective.
Michael Coveney on Whatsonstage.com (four stars) – “Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 psychological thriller Gaslight has not been seen in London for many years, so Peter Gill’s astutely cast revival comes as a bit of a shock… We see Rosamund Pike go to pieces and then find her feet in emotional turmoil, damaged but not beyond rescue if life should deal her a better hand in future. It’s a beautifully plotted performance in a play that still stings in its analysis of a cruel marriage as a criminal strategy. Hayden Griffin’s set is so magnificently cluttered that you can’t enjoy any of the detail from halfway back in the stalls. Does the design have to be quite so old-fashioned? And shouldn’t we see more of the actors’ faces early on while still gaining the benefit of Hartley TA Kemp’s atmospheric lighting? The dimming and raising of the lamps is not quite right. But I quibble, Sybil. The Old Vic has a popular hit on its hands.”
Michael Billington in the Guardian (three stars) – “Billed as a ‘Victorian thriller’, Patrick Hamilton's Gaslight was written in 1938. But it is that rare thing: a re-creation of an old form which works in its own terms. And it was fascinating to see Peter Gill's fine production silence the audience's mocking laughter and generate a creepily atmospheric tension … It would be easy to pinpoint flaws. Bella, though progressively de-stabilised, seems remarkably slow to grasp the sleuth's hints as to her husband's darker purpose. And, in establishing an authentic Victorian atmosphere, Hamilton sometimes lapses into pulp-fiction pastiche … Yet the play works because of Hamilton's grasp of stage effects, and because he presents us with Manichean good and evil … Andrew Woodall presents us unequivocally with a moral monster … Rosamund Pike also gives a good account of the persecuted Bella, famously incarnated on screen by Ingrid Bergman. Pike lends Bella a manic edge … But, palely beautiful and suffering valiantly, Pike also implies Bella is corrupted by her husband, and at the last confirms Auden's point that those to whom evil is done do evil in return … The performance holding the evening together is Kenneth Cranham's Detective Rough. Whiskered and sane, he also lends the old boy a certain friskiness. Gaslight is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a classic. But Gill's production, nicely designed by Hayden Griffin, brings out its old-fashioned virtues and proves it is more than schlock.”
Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph - “Wanted: one detective inspector to investigate the strange disappearance of the thriller from London’s Theatreland. Once they were everywhere, but until last night only the cheesy old Mousetrap remained as a reminder of the devious pleasures of the past. All credit then to the Old Vic for reviving the ‘Victorian thriller’ Gaslight with such aplomb … There was a good deal of the sado-masochist in Patrick Hamilton’s psychological make-up, and he brought his dark side brilliantly into play here. But there’s no doubt the melodrama still grips … Peter Gill directs a superbly judged production … Andrew Woodall proves thrillingly cruel and commanding as the psychotic husband, his every word cunningly calculated to make his wife suffer further, while Rosamund Pike breaks your heart as his pale, cowed wife … Kenneth Cranham is at once wily, kind-hearted and unexpectedly funny as the dogged police inspector … For those seeking old-fashioned thrills and chills, Gaslight remains just the ticket almost 70 years after its premiere.”
Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail (four stars) – “Luminous beauty is one of those phrases I have never really understood before. But seeing Rosamund Pike in the faint glow of stage gaslights, it finally made sense … In this agreeably gamey melodrama – set in the 1880s – Miss Pike plays a bullied, gullible young woman, Bella Manningham … Yes, (the play) creaks. Yes, the dialogue is at times hokey. And yes, some of the characters soon start to seem ludicrously overdone. This, though, is surely the point. Gaslight, in addition to being genuinely exciting, is an exercise in entertainment … It has an element of pantomime villainy to it … The Old Vic has in recent months hurled some Drama with a capital D at us. This strangely watchable show – directed, albeit a little ploddingly, by Peter Gill – is the jolliest thing I have seen here. And fair Rosamund alone is worth travelling a long way to catch.”
Fiona Mountford in the Evening Standard (two stars) – “Patrick Hamilton's Gaslight has long been a creaky old thriller beloved of amateur dramatics companies with over-eager props departments. Its revival at one of the West End's flagship venues is, therefore, something of a mystery, or at least considerably more of a mystery than anything Peter Gill's resolutely suspense-free production can offer. Not even Rosamund Pike, proving once more that she is to the period costume born, is enough to keep these gas-lamps flaring … Hamilton's writing ensures that even the most dim-witted follower of thrillers remains permanently two revelations ahead of the action… Pike treats this tosh with the utmost seriousness. She is a revelation as an unconfident, unwillingly medicated young woman, trapped in a very English Doll's House and left to twitter like a nervy songbird around her gilded drawing-room cage. Andrew Woodall unfortunately chooses to play her brute of a husband as a pantomime villain right from the start ... Kenneth Cranham, once more shrugging on the raincoat of an inspector calling during an evening of portentously foul weather, gently sends the whole thing up. Funny by Gaslight this might be, but that's nowhere near enough.”
Patrick Hamilton’s 1939 psychological thriller Gaslight has not been seen in London for many years, so Peter Gill’s astutely cast revival comes as a bit of a shock. The setting is London in 1880, where the dank and yellow afternoon is pierced by the distant sound of a hurdy-gurdy: “I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls” is the production’s recurring tune – “with vassals and serfs at my side.”
At first, we think Bella Manningham (Rosamund Pike) is going mad as she has misplaced grocery bills, forgotten the fire, lost a picture from the wall. What is more, she thinks she is going mad. Pike flutters like a beautiful wounded bird in a gilded cage, beating at invisible bars in her sumptuous grey gown.
Her husband Jack (Andrew Woodall) is driven to distraction, though he taunts her with the promise of a theatre outing. But gradually we realise that this is an abusive marriage. Every night, Jack leaves the house. The gaslights dim as someone rummages about upstairs, pacing the room like John Gabriel Borkman. But can it be Jack? How does he get up there, and what is he doing in the attic, which is off-limits to Bella?
The mystery at once thickens and dissolves with the arrival of Detective Rough (Kenneth Cranham), a jovial cove, more Wilkie Collins than Conan Doyle, who is revisiting an old murder case – a murder that took place in this very house 20 years ago – with a theory or two about the identity of a putative jewel thief. Bella has been married to Jack for seven years. They moved to this house only six months ago…
Bella’s nerves are calmed by Rough pouring some whisky. A first night accident of knocking over a full glass found Cranham well prepared with an ad-lib to honour his character’s taste for the amber liquid, as well as that of the play’s author (who died a miserable alcoholic in 1962): “I could almost suck it from the tablecloth.” Some skulking around, an erotic entanglement with Sally Tatum’s young housemaid and diversions from her elder colleague Rowena Cooper follow, complicating Bella’s predicament.
In the George Cukor movie version (for which Ingrid Bergman won an Oscar), Joseph Cotten romanticised Rough to the extent of marrying the heroine, a variation which understandably incensed Hamilton, who had been just as angered by the first bowdlerised film version starring Anton Walbrook and Diana Wynyard. Kenneth Cranham’s Rough catches exactly Hamilton’s tone of wry, detached informality, and the actor blesses the role with his own special brand of unsentimental likeability.
Against this steady background, we see Rosamund Pike go to pieces and then find her feet in emotional turmoil, damaged but not beyond rescue if life should deal her a better hand in future. It’s a beautifully plotted performance in a play that still stings in its analysis of a cruel marriage as a criminal strategy.
Hayden Griffin’s set is so magnificently cluttered that you can’t enjoy any of the detail from halfway back in the stalls. Does the design have to be quite so old-fashioned? And shouldn’t we see more of the actors’ faces early on while still gaining the benefit of Hartley TA Kemp’s atmospheric lighting? The dimming and raising of the lamps is not quite right. But I quibble, Sybil. The Old Vic has a popular hit on its hands.
Gaslight, more a melodrama than a thriller, is now very dated and perhaps a few stage effects like The Woman in Black would have added some much needed excitement to a play that is very wordy and probably more effective on the written page. Kenneth Cranham seems to think he's in a comedy which is just as well given some of his risible dialogue and Andrew Woodall is a pantomime villain, complete with boos at the curtain call. Not entirely bad, mainly thanks to very good female performances and taut direction but surely Gaslight is more suited to regional rep rather than such a prestigious theatre. Mind you The Old Vic is badly in need of rennovating many of its' seats and improving the disgraceful toilets to justify that label. - David Baxter
26 Jul 07
What a strange concoction! A psychological drama written in the late 30's but set in Victorian times and played here as melodrama (a rarely seen genre these days). The set is a brilliantly clostrophobic setting of the Victorian period, the performances are wonderful (great to see Kenneth Cranham after what seems like ages, another superb creation of fragility from Rosamund Pike and Andrew Woodall giving us a perfectly crafted man of those times) and Peter Gill's attention to detail, wonderfully demonstrated in the NT's Voysey Inheritance, again evident here. Though I found the story predictable, I found the production compelling and, in 2007, it makes for a very different night out. - Gareth James
The Old Vic is one of the oldest theatres in London and famous throughout the English speaking world. Long known as 'the actors theatre', many of the greatest performers of the last century have played on its stage. In September 2004, The Old Vic Theatre Company was launched, under the artistic leadership of Kevin Spacey, to present a wide range of work, from the classic to the new, to appeal to both traditional theatre-goers and new audiences.
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