Gas Light

A Victorian thriller, by Patrick Hamilton
Director’s Note

The play is set in fog-bound London in 1880, at the upper middle class home of Jack Manningham and his wife Bella. It is late afternoon, a time that Hamilton notes as the time “before the feeble dawn of gaslight and tea.”

 

Bella is clearly on edge, and the stern reproaches of her overbearing husband (who flirts with the servants in front of his wife) make matters worse. What most perturbs Bella is Jack’s unexplained disappearances from the house: he will not tell her where he is going, and this increases her anxiety. It becomes clear that Jack is intent on convincing Bella that she is going insane, even to the point of assuring her she is imagining that the gas light in the house is dimming.

 

The appearance of a police detective called Rough leads Bella to realise that Jack is responsible for her torment. Rough explains that the apartment above was once occupied by one Alice Barlow, a wealthy woman who was murdered for her jewels. The murderer was never found.

 

Jack goes to the flat each night to search for the jewels, and lighting the apartment’s gas lights causes the lights to dim in the rest of the building. His footsteps in the supposedly empty apartment persuade Bella that she is “hearing things”. Rough convinces Bella to assist him in exposing Jack as the murderer, which she does, but not before she takes revenge on Jack by pretending to help him escape. At the last minute she reminds him that, having gone insane, she is not accountable for her actions. The play closes with Jack being led away by the police.

Cast & Crew
Cast

Jack Manningham… Roger Boardman

Bella Manningham… Clare Bennet

Ex detective Rough … Vince Kenney 

Elizabeth The housekeeper… Lynne Glynn

Nancy the naid … Nancy Monaghan

Man… Frank Boocock Paul Hilton

The Voice… Karen Robinson

Crew

Director … Pauline Walsh

PA Jose Whitehead

Stage Manager … Frank Boocock

Set Design .. Pauline Walsh, Ken Wright

 

Lighting… Brian Hilton

Sound… Andrew McConnell, Stephen Hendren

Props… Anne Hilton, Diane Kilburn, Pauline Walsh

Wardrobe… Edwina Rigby, Sylvia Hague, Kath Bingley

Prompt… Jose Whitehead

 

Date

Sat 4th October 2008
Expired!

Time

7:30 pm - 10:00 pm

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