The Turn of the Screw

Synopsis

Miss Jessel is dead. A new governess arrives at a remote estate in Bly to care for Miles and Flora. Wild but angelic they charm their guardian with flowers, poetry and song. But as she grows to love her two wards, figures appear in the darkness outside and the corners of the house are haunted by those that have gone before. The Governess must confront her fear and protect the children from the alarming dangers that surround them.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 25 January 2013

Henry James' creepy 1898 novella about two spoilt children weirdly torturing their new governess with sexual ambiguity has probably had more theatrical adaptations than the collected works of Dickens. So, what does playwright Rebecca Lenkiewicz bring to the Almeida?

With Hammer Horror Films co-producing a literally bloodless revival, she ups the ghostly ante, with sudden apparitions of Miss Jessel and Peter Quint, and most significantly suggests that Miles, the inscrutable ten-year-old in Henry James, is a burgeoning adolescent teenager who snogs the governess and talks a bit like Nigel Havers.

I'm afraid this ruins the story's strangeness and delicacy, and Lindsay Posner's tentative production - nowhere near as good as...

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Latest User Review

David Baxter - 7 March 2013:

At the interval I had high hopes for this adaptation of Henry James' creepy ghost story, but the second half almost completely failed to deliver. Lindsay Posner and Rebecca Lenkiewicz seem to be undecided if this should be a play with shocks like The Woman in Black or a tale of sexual repression and redemption of lost souls. The casting of the children is part of the problem; Emilia Jones is impressive for one so young but is prone to gabbling and Laurance Belcher is too old which makes his scenes with the governess far more disturbing than they need be. Anna Madeley is an actress for whom I have huge admiration and on most levels hers is an excellent performance as the governess who has to carry almost every scene but, possibly thanks to the confused direction, there is almost no sense of fear even when a ghost materialises in her bed. This always seemed an unusual choice for the Almeida and it's a shame it couldn't live up to the promise of an excellent first half....

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