Turn of the Screw
Last updated: 26/10/2009 19:37:00
Turn of the Screw,
Snape Maltings
Pressure built up and up. Things became more alarming, more uncanny. Our suspicions grew as Benjamin Britten's music set about exploring every psychological nook and cranny of the chilling Henry James story that forms the basis of The Turn of the Screw.
Performed in the fine new Studio on a bare platform, Neil Bartlett's production of the opera forced the audience to use its imagination. A few hints were enough to suggest a railway journey or a walk in the garden. Then we started guessing something nasty might be lurking beneath this calm surface.
Anna Devin, tall, neat and severe, arrived looking like an ideal governess for a pair of children, played with exemplary self-discipline by Crispin Lord and Merrin Lazyan.
The prologue, sung by Lawrence Wiliford, gave a warning as well as essential information. Then, in the role of Quint, he became more and more sinister as he sang a strange ornamented line in a high, piercing tenor voice. He was far more disturbing than his accomplice, Norah King, who inclined a bit too far towards melodrama.
Chris Davey created telling effects with lights, though the huge shadows on the back wall did not really help, and under Garry Walker the Britten-Pears Orchestra was completely at home with a tricky, strangely beautiful score.
Christopher Smith