Western Michigan University Theatre recently opened their production of Haunting of Hill House. It runs through Nov 3. WMUK’s Gordon Bolar has this review.
To enter the D. Terry Williams Theatre for this performance, I walked down a long, narrow, dimly lighted passage, lined with toys and dolls from long ago. Somewhere a music box was playing a plaintive counterpoint to my surroundings: “Happy Days Are Here Again.”
When I arrived in the darkened playing area for this immersive, in-the-round production I heard indistinguishable whispers and eerie humming sounds that seemed to disturb the air around me. Four heavy cornices, suggesting a 19th Century mansion, were suspended overhead. A large, rectangular, white canvas box loomed inexplicably above the stage.
Although the entire setting portended the presence of evil, before the atmospheric lighting of Evan P. Carlson dimmed and Joshua D. Reid’s enveloping sound design receded, I wondered if I was in for a mere seasonal carnival attraction. Would more be provided here in the way of what good theatre delivers when a gripping storyline engages believable characters who must make life and death decisions in the face of physical harm and mental peril?
I am pleased to report that Director Mark Liermann’s production delivers far more in the way of dramatic psychological stage terror than the jump scares from a trip through a Halloween spook house ever could.
The story centers around the investigation of Dr. Montague, played with the air of proper scientific inquiry by Leo Hellar. The Doctor and his invited guests are on a mission to observe, record, and make sense of the phenomena emanating from the mysterious Hill House.
The guests are ushered in and oriented by the ominous, stern housekeeper, Mrs. Dudley. She is appropriately rendered by Katie Bavirsha, as a bird-like woman drained of life and emotion.
Assisting Dr. Montague is the softspoken heir to the Hill House estate, Luke Sanderson, played with quiet reserve by AJ Christian.
Maggie Bengston as the perky and loquacious Theodora brightens the stage with a mocking portrayal of Mrs. Dudley, and an upbeat demeaner. More importantly, she befriends the show’s leading character, Eleanor Vance, and for a while becomes her confidant, as well as comrade-in-arms
When we see Eleanor alone in the play’s opening moments, she seems to be drawn upward into a shaft of light. This early introduction of the supernatural elements at work in Hill House lets us know that we might not be witnessing a “Who Done It?” so much as a “What Done It?”
It also sets the stage for Eleanor’s struggle with Hill House.
Anna Carabio, who plays Eleanor, delivers a nuanced performance as an unassuming young woman who willingly braves the terrors that await her. She does so despite the Doctor’s warning that “the house can affect you.”
Carabio rises to the challenge of manifesting the full arc of this character, by showing her downward spiral into something akin to either madness or possession by the spirits that rule Hill House. After the forces of darkness mount a loud, disturbing, late-night assault on her bedroom, Carabio’s character emerges visibly shaken, head down, and shoulders drawn together.
Eleanor’s relationships with others deteriorate, including the previous friendship with Theodora, whom she alternately embraces and pushes away in a growing state of desperation. The pull of the house is evident in Carabio’s display of the war within this distracted character. Her body seems torn between wanting to flee and heeding the call of that which threatens to devour her. Carabio embraces her role with total commitment and makes the horrific moments of the play’s ending credible.
Although the production uses Andrea Imsland’s striking set design for some memorable revelatory moments and tells the story in a fluid manner, playwright F. Andrew Leslie’s adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s novel is far from flawless. The script’s three-act-structure, containing long passages of exposition, a few dead ends, two intermissions, and airy scenes of social chit chat, now seems clunky and the product of a bygone era of playwriting.
Two seemingly extraneous characters are thankfully brought to life in an entertaining manner by Bella Benigni, as Mrs. Montague, and her buffoonish sidekick, Arthur, played by Charlie Vivirito. Despite their limited relevance to the play’s plot, the comic relief provided by this pair is a welcome addition to the otherwise dark environs of Hill House.
The audiences attending this gripping production of “Haunting of Hill House,” might well be in need of such levity.
