Acadia’s “Turn of the Screw” a good fit with soggy weather

A ghost story doesn’t often provide fuel for literary debate unless, of course, it was written by Henry James. Jeffrey Hatcher’s recent adaptation of the 1898 novella, “Turn of the Screw,” won’t end the argument over whether James’ governess actually saw apparitions or if she imagined them.

That discussion won’t matter to theatergoers who see Acadia Repertory Theatre’s unsettling production of “The Turn of the Screw.” The Somesville company’s production will send them out into the damp night fog seeing ghostly figures on the side of the road and wondering whether they are real or just a little leftover theatrical magic.

Hatcher is a Minneapolis-based playwright who adapted “Tuesdays With Morrie” for the stage and wrote the screenplay for “Stage Beauty.” He adapted James’ ghost story into a two-person, 90-minute play in the late 1990s. It premiered at Portland Stage Company in 1998.

The script borrows heavily from the novella and could be considered talky by many. The way the characters narrate the story and participate in it at the same time takes some getting used to but, in the end, it works. By its final blackout, the play feels as if it is a ghost story being acted out around a campfire by a couple of counselors or in front of a huge fireplace in a run down Victorian mansion.

Acadia Rep’s production, performed without an intermission, was directed by its two stars, Cheryl Willis and Michael Kissin. Hatcher’s script calls for an actress to play the governess and an actor to portray all the other roles, including a 10-year-old boy, female housekeeper and the children’s absent uncle.

Much of the credit for the creepy feel of this production goes to Cheryl Willis. The English-born actress, who has been part of the summer theater company for many years, ably shifts from narration to dialogue. She also subtly conveys the sexual overtones many a James scholar has pointed out to show how the writer was influenced by Sigmund Freud.

It is Willis’ impeccable pacing that pulls the play through its dramatic peaks and valleys. She is so convincing in the character’s belief that the apparitions are real, the audience almost sees them too. It is Willis’ great skill as an actress and her willingness to go to dark places that lifts the play above intellectual wrangling and gives it the emotional edge that makes sitting through the performance creepy.

Kissin is her match in nearly every way, but his delineation between characters sometimes gets a little muddy. His “hands-off” uncle combines just the right amount of charm and emotional distance to create a truly creepy guy. The actor’s housekeeper is sturdy and just skeptical enough of what the governess reports to cause the audience to question her too.

It is as the boy that Kissin fails to create a distinct character. The boy the actor portrays seems a bit too cagey to be a child, even one shaped by the Victorian age. Sometimes, Kissin’s boy acts as if he might be possessed or simply evil. It never becomes clear who or what the actor believes the child to be.

That, however, is a slight flaw in an otherwise fine production performed on a nearly bare black stage without props. Chris Dougherty’s severe black and white 19th century costumes, however, speak volumes about the repressive age in which the story is set.

Acadia Rep has kicked off its 37th season with a tantalizing ghost story that turns out to be all too good a fit for what, so far, has been an exceedingly soggy summer. If it’s any consolation, James’ apparitions — real or imagined — go well with the weather.

Judy Harrison’s son, Padraic Harrison, is an intern at Acadia Repertory Theatre. He is a member of the technical crew for “The Turn of the Screw.”