The Innocents
From 9 December 2002
To 14 December 2002
by William Archibald
Description
Adapted from Henry James's short story, the Turn of The Screw Produced by special arrangement with Samuel French Inc
The Innocents is set in Victorian England. Miss Giddens, a vibrant young woman, has to suppress her thoughts and emotions, in order to earn a living as a governess. She arrives at a bleak country estate to take care of two wealthy orphans, Flora and Miles. Outwardly the children appear angelic, but the governess gradually begins to feel that there is something more sinister to her charges.
Miss Giddens comes to believe that the malevolent spirits have possessed the young children and it pushes her already fragile mind closer to the edge. Is it hysteria caused by repressed passions, or is it a true case of possession?
There have been many stage, film and television adaptations of Henry James's
absorbing ghost story. This play, although originally performed in 1950, captures
the essence and atmosphere that has made his story such a lasting favourite.
A great stage success for Flora Robson and made into a film starring Deborah
Kerr, which now enjoys cult 60's status, the play even attracted Harold Pinter
to direct it for Broadway. The Nonentities hope that you will enjoy this atmospheric
and absorbing ghost story.
Directors Notes
Henry James was a prolific novelist, reviewer and short story writer. Born in 1843 in New York he spent many years in England. He lived first for a year in Paris in 1875 then moved to London. From 1898 onwards he lived in Rye, in Sussex, until his death in 1916. He had become a British citizen in 1915.
James' novel "The Turning if the Screw" is one of his most gripping and chilling stories of Innocence and Evil. He skilfully structures his plot so that there are at least two or maybe more "readings" of the meaning within the story. His writing is dense, elaborate, and some critics would say, difficult. Certainly this work is Ambiguity personified: are the Ghosts real or is the governess a victim of her own fantasies? Or ideas she picks up and exaggerates from what the housekeeper may have hinted? Were the children victims of some thing unspeakable before she arrived? Do they know and see what the governess thinks she sees? Are they just playing games with the governess?
All adapters, for the Stage have to select and compress the original novel in order to convey the characterisation, action, atmosphere and subtleties within the play text that the original author intended. In the particular script with which the cast has been working, we consider that William Archibald must have been an adapter/playwright of the "old school". His stage directions are elaborate, lengthy passages in their own right, which defy description for contemporary audiences. [Perhaps caught from James' style.] We have therefore relied on sensitivity to the mood of the scenes, and used "sound and silence", "movement and stillness", "light and darkness" to interpret the words of Henry James. We leave you to say whether we have succeeded. If you leave the theatre still wondering what was really going on, were the "Innocents" innocent? We may well be satisfied ---- we are not sure either!
Note from Sound
Several effects will have considerable acoustic impact!