Michael Mullen and Shayna Gabrielle deliver bravura performances at Sierra Madre Playhouse in Jeffrey Hatcher’s adeptly adapted retelling of Henry James’ classic horror novella The Turn Of The Screw.

Gabrielle plays the unnamed Governess to Miles and Flora, hired by their absentee uncle to care for the children in the isolated country estate that he does his best to stay as far away from as possible.

When the older child, Miles, gets sent home from his boarding school for reasons no one seems willing to reveal, the Governess begins to suspect that there may be some horrific secret behind his sudden expulsion, and she sets about determining precisely what it might be.

Adding to the Governess’s already fragile mental state is her conviction that the two mysterious figures, one male, one female, that she keeps seeing late at night just might be the ghosts of Miss Jessel, the children’s previous governess, and her fellow employee, Peter Quince, the latter of whom appears bent on possessing the soul of the deeply troubled Miles.

Is the Governess actually seeing ghosts, or are Miss Jessel and Peter figements of a deeply disturbed young woman’s overactive imagination?

Novelist James and adapter Hatcher leave it to the reader or playgoer to decide from themselves, just one reason The Turn Of The Screw is not just a literary classic but a regional theater staple requiring nothing more than a director with a vision, two gifted performers, and the most minimal of production designs.

No easy task that, but on all three fronts Sierra Madre Playhouse delivers the goods.

Director Jeramiah Peay reveals a flair for visual storytelling in addition to eliciting sensational performances from his two stars.

Mullen aces the plum assignment of bringing to life multiple characters, from the children’s cold-as-ice Uncle to matronly housekeeper Mrs. Grose to the menacing Peter Quince to the achingly tormented Miles, giving each of them their own unique voice and physicality.

Gabrielle may be assigned but a single role to play, but play the living daylights out of it she does, taking the lovely young Governess from concerned to frightened to downright terrified … and determined to deliver young Miles from evil, even if it means confronting two demonic spirits head-to-head.

 A dark velvet upstage curtain and a few Victorian-era furnishings give the Sierra Madre Playhouse stage a look that is both elegant and, per playwright Hatcher’s instructions, minimalist.

Jeanne Marie Valleroy’s atmospheric lighting design, Kevin Macleod’s mood-enhancing original music, and Paey’s spooky sound design (much of it provided by Mullen in voice artist mode) up the play’s mystery and ever escalating suspense over its eighty-minute running time.

Valleroy is production manager. Todd McCraw is technical director. Kelly Frisch and Valleroy are stage managers. Philip Sokloff is publicist.

Halloween may still be three and a half months away, but at Sierra Madre Playhouse it might as well be October 31 for the next three weeks, The Turn Of The Screw providing ghost story lovers plenty to get spooked about in July.

Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd., Sierra Madre.
www.sierramadreplayhouse.org

–Steven Stanley
July 14, 2023
Photos: Berrie Tsang

Tags: Henry James, Jeffrey Hatcher, Los Angeles Theater Review, Sierra Madre Playhouse