The Haunting of Hill House

This play - a very wordy psychological thriller - needs accomplished actors as it requires  lots of emotion and changes of mood as a learned doctor conducts research into supernatural phenomena. His associates in the plot are quite an eclectic group of people who are in Hill House to establish the origins of evil in the house and the cause of madness and death of some of its inhabitants.     

The actors were indeed accomplished and first we have Eleanor Vance (Kay Jones) who is the emotionally unstable person who needs plenty of looking after throughout. Mrs Dudley (Susan U’Ren) is the sombre housekeeper and provided us with a small amount of comedy and became the butt of jokes by the guests of Hill House. Theodora (Lauren Groome) was the second arrival at the premises and soon became friends with the aforementioned Eleanor. Dr. John Montague (Roy Stevens) was the instigator of the research and had dialogue galore with which he coped brilliantly from beginning to end. Luke Sanderson (Niall Conlan), the heir to the property, was sceptical about the whole thing and his blasé attitude to the supernatural was made very apparent. The arrival of the doctor’s wife, Mrs. Montague (Lyndsey Kite) livened proceedings by the complete trust she had in her own spiritualist beliefs in the messages from the deceased. She was driven to the location by Arthur Parker (Ken Mandel) a local headmaster. This character’s presence did not seem to add any depth to the storyline for me.

As we reached the final day and everyone is about to go home after many both turbulent and calm times, the final scene is quite confusing. I much prefer plays with a definitive ending and this one left me wondering as to exactly what was and had been happening. Near the start of the production, as the doctor was giving a potted version of the previous one hundred years, I did not hear that short speech because the person next to me had a mobile telephone ringing and was unable to turn it off. Maybe, I missed something important within that dialogue about the disfunctional sisters.

Excellently directed action, a very talented cast, a good technical team with lighting and sound effects - congratulations to all. 

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