Hill House stage adaptation thrills with scares, fumbles the nuance — SkimNews
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- Director Martin Constantine drives the production with a soundscape of unsettling music, creaky hinges and unidentified thuds, paired with jump scares where bulbs blow, blankets hover and furniture slides unaided.
- Lighting designer Chris Davey and video projection designer Duncan McLean conjure the troubled mansion's many rooms on a panelled backdrop, intensifying the fright factor toward the climax.
- Clancy Ryan stars as Eleanor, capturing her 'giddy freedom, gnawing insecurity and yearning for a place in the world' after 11 years caring for her bullying, recently deceased mother.
- Sophie Lenglinger plays Theodora as 'slinking, seductive,' while Robin Morrissey plays heir Luke as 'cocksure yet brittle,' completing the trio of guests invited by Dr Montague to investigate Hill House.
- Stef Smith's script makes 'a strong stab' at Eleanor's psychological unraveling — her conviction that the house is both haunted by her mother and the home she has craved.
- The adaptation tweaks the ending and adds a twist on the mother-daughter theme, steering the story in a 'less nuanced, albeit enjoyably creepy,' direction without the novel's access to Eleanor's inner world.
- Reviewer verdict: for audiences new to the story, the technically impressive production offers 'a transporting fright night at the theatre.'
Why it matters: The review highlights a tension at the heart of adapting Jackson's psychologically interior novel — Constantine's production excels at technical spectacle and jump scares but trades the source's character nuance for a 'less nuanced' tweaked ending, potentially leaving fans of the novel dissatisfied even as it thrills newcomers.
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