adapted for the stage by F. Andre Leslie

from the novel by
Shirley Jackson

Cast:

An O.R.P Production directed by Adrian Winfindale..

Crew:

The Play is dedicated to the memory of Nigel Baker 1959-1992. A talented actor and musician. The Haunting of Hill House was the last play Nigel directed for the Wombourne Players in 1989. He is still sadly missed.

The Play is set in Hill House in the 1950s. the action takes place in a windowless parlour in the centre of the house and a small bedroom.

ACT I

SCENE I: Late afternoon in early summer

SCENE II: That night

SCENE III: Late morning several days later

Interval 15 minutes

ACT II

SCENE I: That evening

SCENE II: The next evening

SCENE III: The following morning

The Play:

Hill House, a deserted forbidding house awaits the arrival of Dr Montague and his fellow researchers. What will they find?

Can houses be haunted, are they possessed and reverberate with the evil of those that have lived there before, or can they be innately evil in their own right? will the visitors leave having discovered the secrets of Hill House, or will the visitors, become the next victims?

Stepping into Hill House is like stepping into the mind of a madman; it isn't long before you weird yourself out.- Stephen King

The Haunting of Hill House was first published in 1959 and along with The Turn of the Screw has been described by Stephen King, as being one of the only great novels of the supernatural in the last hundred years. The book was filmed with Juilie Harris and Claire Bloom in 1963, with a more recent version starring Catherine Zeta Jones being released as The Haunting. The play The Haunting of Hill House was first performed in 1964.

Review

(Birmingham & District Theatre Guild)

Shirley Jacksons menacing play was set in a dark mysterious old house the Oldbury Rep presented to us with extremely good effect. The set was in the main a delight, perhaps slightly let down within one or two areas of detail. However, the good things about it more than made up for this with a superb bedroom in the upper corner of stage right that really did give the audience the impression that it was the real thing. The lighting and special effects also gave the whole play the atmosphere that the story demanded.

The acting was well up to the standard that we have all come to expect from this talented company. Norma Pyke's Mrs Dudley would have put fear into the hearts of Mrs Danvers and Miss Murdstone if by some literary juggling they had ever met. Joanne Mason stood out as Theodora giving a strong performance from the moment she swept into the room and Philip Wesley Harkom's Dr Montagu was very convincing; indeed the whole cast gave us some fine performances. So why did I leave feeling that nothing was at fault but the play as a whole seemed to lack that special theatrical ingredient that cements the whole thing together. I strongly suspect that it was the audience who, from listening to comments during the interval and after the play, were really enjoying themselves, but seemed reluctant to convey that fact to the cast at the end of each scene by remaining silent; hence that magical something that passes between actor and audience was denied the occupants of Hill House. However, this did not detract from a thoroughly enjoyable evening of theatre and once again a big thank you must go to Oldbury Rep. Well done!

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