The Turn of the Screw at Arcola Theatre and on tour – review

Henry James’ 1898 ghost story The Turn of the Screw has been unusually well-served by adaptations, as Benjamin Britten’s 1954 opera and Jack Clayton’s 1961 film The Innocents are exceptional works of art in their own right.

The debate continues to rage as to whether the protagonist, known as The Governess, really did see ghosts or if they were manifestations of her mental instability and sexual repression – we wouldn’t want an adaptation to offer a definitive answer; the thrill comes in the dropping of clues and sheer creepiness.

Emilia playwright Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s striking adaptation is framed by The Governess (Amy Tara) being questioned by a man who is neither detective, lawyer, journalist nor doctor (Jim Fish – perhaps a stand-in for the patriarchy or for her conscience), who keeps twisting her words. The summer before she took the job at the isolated Bly Manor, her predecessor Miss Jessel and her employer’s valet Peter Quint both died in mysterious circumstances. Now one of the children in her charge is dead and answers are needed. She can’t trust anyone, least of all herself.

Despite being a scaredy-cat who was traumatised by The Woman in Black as a teenager, Nicky Allpress’ production didn’t make me grab on to my neighbour or lose sleep afterwards. As with James’ novella, it’s a slow burn and it would benefit from being played without an interval breaking up the tension. Nevertheless, it features many of the classic tropes of horror theatre with screams and mysterious whistling and banging (a detailed soundscape by Hattie North), and a lady in black, her face covered with a veil. The action takes place in front of a series of screens representing windows or doors (designed by Matthew Cassar) with sepia outlines of trees beyond.

Tara gives a strong, spirited performance as The Governess, who is also the de facto chatelaine in the absence of a lady of the house and is flirted with by the children’s Mr Rochester-esque uncle (also Fish, who conveys an insinuating menace in both roles) at her interview. She clearly enjoys the independence and being in charge (something that she probably wouldn’t experience at home) but gradually finds her authority slipping away and undermined by shifty housekeeper Mrs Grose (a wry Katy Slater) – whom she outranks despite being a newcomer to the Manor – who doesn’t give anything away.

The ghosts aren’t as scary as the children Miles and Flora, played here by young adult actors Toby Beynon and Kathleen McAuley Irvine. Miles has been expelled from boarding school with no explanation and it’s a puzzle as to how such a perfect little gentleman who appears to be wise beyond his years could be so ostracised.

The doubling of Miles and Flora with the silent adult roles of Quint and Jessel was borne of necessity (as Lloyd Malcolm’s programme note explains) but it succeeds in complicating the disturbing relationships between the children and the deceased adults even further. McAuley Irvine’s Flora is characterised by sausage curls and sinister staring facial expressions. As the precocious Miles (perhaps the scariest child in fiction), Beynon is hugely impressive in his professional theatre debut; he is all unsettling charm and his whole body changes with a leer as Quint takes over. 

There’s nothing scarier than men who refuse to believe women and undermine them at every turn. The Governess insists that she was awake throughout – she is clearly damaged and far from a reliable narrator, but it would be foolish to write her off.