There are just a few days left to see the latest production at Medway Little Theatre. Here Paul Tomkies reviews the play.

Medway Little Theatre’s 59th season commenced at the beginning of October with the Youth Extravaganza Alice in Wonderland and now it’s the turn of the adult company to present their first production of the season, The Turn of the Screw.

Henry James’ famous 1898 Gothic ghost story concerns a young governess who arrives in a lonely English manor house to care for two recently orphaned children.

However she is not their first governess: her predecessor, Miss Jessel, drowned herself when she became pregnant by the sadistic valet, Peter Quint, who was himself found dead soon after under mysterious circumstances.

Now the new governess has begun to see the ghosts of Quint and Jessel haunting the children, and she must find a way to stop the fiends before it is too late. But one frightening question tortures the would-be heroine: are the ghosts real, or are they the product of her own fevered imagination?

American playwright Jeffrey Hatcher has very cleverly adapted James’ novella as a play featuring just two characters, “The Man” and “The Governess” and this challenging piece is finely acted by Mike Dickinson and Emily Keogh.

Emily is on stage for the whole running time of around 70 minutes and holds you enthralled, with lovely nuances showing us the character’s self-doubt, confusion and indeed terror as the play progresses.

Meanwhile Mike expertly plays all the other characters including a young boy and the housekeeper whilst providing various sound effects, too!

The two of them work incredibly well together, remaining focused and gradually drawing us in to this strange world of ghostliness and fear. Are the ghosts real, indeed? Find out for yourselves!

Two-hand plays are very difficult to successfully execute and director Dan Abraham’s production is finely paced, keeping our attention for the whole time. A creepy, intense and very nicely crafted piece.

The play is preceded by three ghostly readings, nicely performed by Allister Kay (reading two of Edgar Allan Poe’s works, The Raven and The Tell-Tale Heart) and the director himself reading M. R. James’ classic A Warning to the Curious.

Performances at Medway Little Theatre, 256 High Street, Rochester, (opposite the former Rochester railway station) run until Saturday.

Call 01634 400322 or book online at www.mlt.org.uk