Waukesha Civic Theatre picked a perfect play for the Halloween season, based on Henry James' similarly named novella, "The Turn of the Screw."
A creepy ghost story set in 1870s London, the play utilizes a small cast, including two youngsters, who all must find the right tone with their characters to make this play work. And this is a superior cast, which really infuses life into this tale of the dead. A less adept cast could have done damage to this subtle story.
Director Mary Rynders has assembled a quartet of performers who walk the tightrope of this thought-provoking story that keeps the audience guessing who is good and who is evil, who is sane and who is insane, and whether there really are ghosts.
The story centers around a governess (Katie Krueger) — a young, pretty woman who is hired to care for two children, Miles and Flora (Matt Katka and Paxtyn Robarge), whose parents have died. The children's uncle (Kirk Rodriquez) is the children's guardian, but wants nothing to do with them except to pay for their care.
The audience gets an uneasy feeling from the opening scene, in which the uncle discusses the situation with the new governess and questions begin to mount. Is the governess smitten by the master? Why doesn't he want to know anything about the children? How did the previous governess die?
At the home of the children, the governess meets the maid (Mary Buchel), who has been caring temporarily for the children. She seems a capable and reasonable woman, and Flora seems a charming child. Soon after, the governess receives an unsettling letter from the boarding school in which Miles has been enrolled, saying he's been expelled. There is no reason given.
When Miles returns home, the governess is taken by his courtly manners and the household is settling into a happy routine. Until the ghosts appear. Or do they?
"The Turn of the Screw" could provide hours of debate as to whether the governess is a noble heroine whose main concern is the children, or a woman who is slowly going mad. This version seems to have a leaning, judging from the self-satisfied glances of key characters offered to the audience after they meet with the governess at various points during the play.
The cast is led by an amazing performance by Krueger as the governess, an extremely challenging role. Lacking a believable governess would leave the other performers twisting in the wind, but Krueger gives them all exactly what they need in each scene — strength, vulnerability, indignation, fear, caring, a romantic spirit — all done with a most convincing British accent.
Krueger's governess shows her delight at the high-spirited children, pleads desperately with the maid to help her protect them from the evil spirits, pours out her emotions with a quavering voice as the play comes to its dramatic conclusion.
The play also has two remarkable children as Flora and Miles. Robarge is exactly what Flora should be — delightful and precocious, flitting about playfully. You get a bit of her mischievous character when she says, "An active imagination — it's such an attractive quality in me."
Katka's Miles is such a mature performance from a seventh-grader. His character's initial meeting with the governess displays his genteel ways, which win her over. His character evolves over the course of the play, always keeping you wondering just what his intentions are.
As the maid, Mrs. Grose, Buchel also has a difficult role. Her character's interactions with the governess are masterfully done, as the two women volley for position in their relationship, moving from acceptance to hostility. Buchel's look and tone are perfect as the increasingly hysterical governess makes greater demands and insisting that she is being truthful. When Mrs. Grose repeats the governess's command with a grudging "I must believe," it has the perfect tenor for the governess to respond with, "Don't patronize me." And the battle lines are drawn.
Buchel keeps her character very much in control, not tipping her hand with emotional outbursts, keeping an even keel even as the apparitions intensify.
As the ghostly apparitions, Kevin Koehne and Renee Bartos drift in and out of well-drawn scenes effectively with slow, deliberate movements which give gravity to the ghostly aspects.
The show features very rich period costumes that helped set the time frame. Eerie music keeps the mood between scene changes that were sometimes on the lengthy side on opening night. Lighting also captured the ghostly mood with lots of shadows, candlelight and darkened areas.
While the look and music create a good canvas on which to work, it is the quartet of outstanding performances that make WCT's version of "The Turn of the Screw" memorable.
if you go
Who:Waukesha Civic Theatre
What: "The Turn of the Screw"
When:Through Nov. 15
Where: 264 W. Main St., Waukesha
Tickets: (262) 547-0708, www.waukeshacivictheatre.com