‘Of course I was under the spell…’
Henry James’ 1898 gothic horror novella The Turn of the Screw is possibly the most influential ghost story ever written (only A Christmas Carol could claim otherwise). It’s been adapted many times, most notably as The Innocents by Jack Clayton and as The Haunting of Bly Manor by Mike Flanagan, but it also provided the groundwork for Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House and Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black. It’s a testament to the book’s staying power that in 2026, almost 130 years on from its original print run, a stage adaptation can still pack out big auditoriums as this production did…
As with the source material, this co-production from Blackeyed Theatre and Arcola Theatre delivers this ghostly tale from the perspective of an unnamed governess (played here by Amy Tara) as she arrives at the remote Bly Manor charged with caring for Miles (Toby Benyon) and his younger sister Flora (Kathleen Irvine) with only the guidance of the inscrutable housekeeper Mrs Grose (Katy Slater) for companionship. The format of the play sees our hapless protagonist interrogated by a mysterious man (Jim Fish – pulling a double shift as he also portrays the governess’s employer) with the main plot played out via flashback.
Beginning with a jump scare so intense that I spilt half my beer down myself like the old fool that I am, this latest iteration of James’ beloved novella is fairly faithful in terms of plot, but the wraparound interrogation narrative ensures that this is more than just a bland retread. It also hints at something darker going on, something about being doomed to repeat our past mistakes. Tara and Fish do most of the heavy lifting here and both are excellent, particularly the latter, who brings a Reece Shearsmith-esque mania to both of his roles. The rest of the cast struggles to match their level of performance, however, with Slater a little wooden as Mrs Grose and Irvine understandably also struggling to convincingly play a character who is half her age in the source material. Benyon fares better as the elder and therefore more easily portrayed Miles, capturing both sides of his warring personality. Despite this inconsistency in performance, the play is always absorbing and often unsettling, even if some of the jump scares are a little cheap.
This production is proof, not that any were needed, that James’ ghost story is still as potent now as it was 128 years ago – an astonishing feat.