Perth Theatre
Four stars
Not everyone is left in
the dark in Kai Fischer’s reality-confounding revival of Patrick Hamilton’s
1938 potboiler, given fresh life when it first gave rise to the term
‘gaslighting’, a form of of psychological manipulation used to convince victims
that they’re mad. When Meg Fraser’s tweed-clad Inspector Rough swoops into
Bella Manningham’s increasingly dimly-lit living room, it is with the tireless
gusto of an avenging angel seeking to protect womankind from men like Bella’s
husband Jack.
On the face of things,
Jack, as played with quiet malevolence by Robin Laing, is a standard issue
post-Victorian husband and master of his house, with all the everyday misogyny
this implies. Full-on flirtation with Ruby Richardson’s sassed-up maid Nancy is
just the half of it, and it is clear from the state of Esme Bayley’s woman on
the verge Bella that things have gone a little bit further than what passes as
normal behaviour.
Things are disappearing
from under Bella’s nose, who, in Bayley’s trembling portrayal, looks like she
might shatter into a million pieces any second. Cue Fraser’s gloriously meta Inspector
Rough, who stomps about, offering glimpses of a thoroughly modern way of doing
things, even as it is suggested Rough might be a product of Bella’s fevered
imagination.
Set on Fischer’s doll’s
house of a set in the gloom of Christoph Wagner’s lighting, such reimaginings
are a game enough way of loosening up a play very much of its time. Fischer’s
mix of melodrama, noir and something far stranger comes through the thumps and
bumps of Matt Padden’s sound design by way of MJ McCarthy’s dream-like chanson.
Any fresh light this sheds can’t help but be dimmed by Hamilton’s off-kilter
script, so the delirium it induces may be a portent of abusive relationships to
come, but without any guarantee of the equivalent of an Inspector Rough to sort
things out for the better.
The Herald, March 27th 2019
Ends
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