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There is little question that taking a renowned ghost story and placing it slap bang in the middle of what is Pantomime / slapstick / fairy tale season can be seen as a bit of a risk for The Playhouse, despite the fact their last foray into the Spectral Spectacular was so well received in the shape of Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson’s Ghost Stories back in 2010.
This time around it is the legendary Hammer who are at the production helm, a film studio so synonymous with all things blood curdling it makes the hairs stand up on just whispering the name and, here, with this production of one of the true classic ghost stories to rank alongside The Woman in Black, anticipation has been justifiably feverish in the expectation of chills and thrills galore.
Does it hit the mark? Well, for the most part yes but there are one or two caveats to address, although none of them concern the cast who all perform superbly well, with the slowly crumbling Eleanor being given so many facets and so much depth by Emily Bevan it is like watching a diamond being crafted by hand.
Superb too is Joseph May’s cynical Luke, who neatly sidesteps being a stereotypical disbelieving reporter and so adds yet more sparkle to an at times intensely dark script which is suffused with more than enough nervous laughter makers to lighten and heighten the tension.
When Alfred Hitchcock talked of Maguffins being a necessity in building suspense, he might well have been talking about this play given the amount of clever misdirection that is employed to great effect.
The set is a delight, but yet and at the same time something of a frustration. Yes, the twin-revolve staging brings things such as doors and furniture smoothly into focus, whilst the encompassing lighting beautifully hides some of the more composite scene changes with great effect and, also, renders the illusion that the stage is in fact a vast dressing room mirror or perhaps a cinema screen shielded by a scrim on to which a myriad of projections are thrown.
Yet it is in this that the problem arises. So integral are these projections to the telling of the story and providing the thrills, it is something of a shame that if you are seated to the extreme left or right of the auditorium then these become almost invisible at times thereby diluting the “shock” effect and making what’s going on more than just a little confusing, particularly when the cast are talking across each other in a frenzy and the audio effects kick in at full volume.
For the first half, I was seated in the stalls to the left of the stage and asked if it might be possible to move upstairs for the second half and more centrally. Here the effects could be seen in all their glory and, as a result, things became far less muddled and the play and performances became so much more enjoyable.
Is The Haunting of Hill House a play worth seeing? Very definitely, but if it is real jump in the seat moments you are after then it might be a disappointment. This is much more of a dark, brooding Agatha Christie-esque psychological puzzler than your out-and-out Stephen King type thrill fest, despite it being beautifully executed … if you’ll pardon the pun.
The Haunting of Hill House
The Liverpool Playhouse Theatre
December 7 – January 16
Author: Anthony Nielson based on the novel by Shirley Jackson
Director: Melly Still
Cast: Emily Bevan, Joseph May, Chipo Chung, Martin Turner, Angela Clerkin
Running Time: 2 hours 30 mins
PR Rating: *** Spectral