Programme Note #1: The Haunting of Hill House
GS wrote: ” In terms of stories – in every form – I always loved the macabre, the gothic and the creepy. Spooky spooks and scary monsters basically.
My adoration of this genre has sent me down all kinds of weird and wonderful rabbit holes in search of the very best stories to have been told. I must have read thousands over the years but Shirley Jackson’s “The Haunting of Hill House” is comfortably one of the finest and brilliantly crafted book I have ever read.
I’m not alone in this; Stephen King refers to it, along with “The Turn of the Screw”, as one of the two truly brilliant supernatural stories ever written. Neil Gaiman says that it stands above all other ghostly tales and, since he read it as a teen, he remains Haunted by Hill House and by Eleanor, the lonely woman who comes to visit.
Despite my infatuation with the ghostly genre, I’ve long shied away from bringing onto the stage. The reason being, scary stories in the theatrical medium are hard to do successfully. For every spellbinding and clever piece, “The Woman in Black” for example, there are numerous plays that have fallen at the simplest hurdle; the tales are supposed to bring schills but often bring sniggers.
At last, I have found the courage to wrestle with my beloved spooky tales and this stage adaptation of this wonderful book – one that Shirley Jackson herself approved at the time. It’s a great interpretation of this story and calls upon many of the famous and infamous moments within.
I hope that you find this an entertaining and uneasy night at the theatre and that your time in Hill House is one that lingers long after the curtain falls.
I’ve been fortunate to assemble a wonderful cast and crew; though through various happen-stance, forced to take on a role myself and wear both a directorial and actors hat; thank heavens I was able to call upon the wonderful Suse Crosby as my second in command!
Welcome, one and all, to the poisonous home of Hugh Crain. Beware its insistent hospitality and those constant knocks upon your chamber door …
Review #1:
Publication: Facebook
Publication Data: June 28 2022
Reviewer: Neil James
Text: Content
Hi there,
Wanted to say a few words about The Haunting of Hill House which I had the pleasure of watching on Thursday evening.
I know horror is very difficult to do on stage, but this production rose to the challenge and through a combination of sound, direction and strong acting, they pulled it off.
Guy Steddon as Dr. Montague is an actor who is very good at holding court. He kept the energy up despite a couple of lengthy dialogue scenes, and handled the heavy exposition really well.
Luke Mepham (playing Luke!) was well cast and delivered his comic one-liners with the perfect twinkle. Luke was highly watchable at all times.
Nicola Russell stormed onto the stage as Mrs Montague, closely followed by her questionable sidekick, Arthur, played by John Garland. Arthur is an odd character who at times seems to be in the wrong story, and Garland gave him just the right amount of oddness to make me always keep one eye on him when he was on stage. Russell sparred well with her stage hubby Steddon and did a good job delivering her rather lunatic speeches.
Now, I know the story of Hill House from the book and various screen adaptations, so I wasn’t expecting to be scared in the slightest. But then Lorena Di Bitonto marched onto the stage!!! Her performance of Mrs Dudley was terrifying. She absolutely nailed it.
Naomi Dasilva Perez gave Theodora such a wonderful mischievous sparkle and was a joy to watch as she buzzed around the stage with glee. Her scenes with Eleanor were brilliant and I truly bought their friendship developing as they got to know each other.
Finally, Rose Marie Shaw was magnificent as Eleanor. She handled everything with grace and was simply mesmerizing during the supernatural sequences.
The set was very effective. That staircase came out of nowhere and was so creepy! The lighting was incredible, especially the red that oozed out of that forbidden doorway. And there was even some sort of incense being pumped into the audience during the supernatural moments which I thought was a genius idea.
Very glad to have caught this show and looking forward to the next one.
Review #2:
Publication: NODA – SE
Publication Data: June 22 2022
Reviewer: Kay Rowan
Text: Content
The haunted house has always been the stuff of nightmares. There’s nothing more compelling than a creaky old house. With its adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House from the book by Shirley Jackson, Wick Theatre Company has certainly tapped into the human fascination with things that go bump in the night!
In this classic American gothic horror story, Dr. Montague hopes to find scientific evidence of the existence of the supernatural. He rents Hill House for a summer and invites people whom he has chosen because of their experiences with paranormal events. Of these, only Eleanor and Theodora accept. They will live in isolation with Montague and his assistant (and heir to Hill House) Luke. Meanwhile, a housekeeper tries to warn them of the horrors within, and Dr.
Montague’s wife and her assistant turn up with their more traditional approach to spiritualism.
Throw them into a haunted house and sit back and watch the fireworks. Nothing quite matches the thrill of watching others tormented—especially from the confines of a theatre seat.
Front of House & Theatre ambience: The front of house team and auditorium stewards gave
everyone a warm and efficient welcome.
The Programme: The super folded programme, complete with the NODA logo, used a very
clear font which made it easy to read. There was plenty of information about the society to
encourage new members and supporting adverts for other societies.
Scenery/Set/Properties: The set was well designed and worked very well – the wood-panelled
drawing-room of the Haunted House set on the stage with Eleanor’s bedroom placed on the floor in front of the stage. The impact of the double-doors closing as if by some supernatural force was most effective. The staircase to the tower was particularly well-done using a screen, gauze and backlighting which gave a third scene without any scene changes. The raising of the screen was a little noisy and perhaps could have been covered by raised voices or music.
Light & Sound: This was a very busy and complex play for the techies however they truly
rose to the occasion and produced very effective, spine-chilling effects and the ‘smell of the fire’ was particularly realistic if a little scary for some members of the audience.
Costumes & Make-Up: Both costumes, make up and hair fitted the period well. There were some changes which were appropriately simple and effective.
The Production: Dr Montague the paranormal investigator was very well played by Guy Seddon, who also directed the play. He got a good balance between being organising and showing empathy. His guests arrive for the night include Eleanor, a complex role very competently played by Rose Marie Shaw; Theodora, an enthusiastic mystical character, which Naomi Dasilva Perez acted with apparent ease. They are greeted by a stern unbending housekeeper, Mrs Dudley, so ably acted by Lorena Di Bonito. Luke Sanderson, well-acted by Luke Mepham, Montague’s assistant and relative of the house’s owner, makes up the opening team. I don’t think this character quite knows why he is there.
The arrival of Mrs Montague and her strange friend Arthur Parker gets everything hurrying along. Nicola Russell was
particularly forthright and John Garland suitably submissive but with an air of ‘know it all”.
This was a challenging play to undertake on many levels. . The actors needed to display a changing demeanour as they made the journey from curiosity and scepticism through doubt and fear to outright terror. The play is also very wordy and one character in particular, Dr Montague, had a hefty amount of dialogue to get to grips with and everyone has complex dialogue with emotional changes.
The play is in two acts and although it is not a long play the first act is disproportionately lengthy, approximately one hour twenty- five minutes. I have not had an opportunity to read the script so presume that must be how it is written. I do wonder if it might have been an idea to ask permission to move the end of the first act forward, possibly before the entrance of Mrs Montague and Arthur.
In a nutshell, The Haunting of Hill House, which was really well directed by Guy Seddon and
Suse Crosby, was a production that delighted in putting people on the edge of their seats and it
certainly did that.
Congratulations to you all for scaring and entertaining a very rapt audience in equal measure
