Theater Review—

‘Gaslight’ Is An Entertaining Bit Of Traditional Theater

By Julie Stern

SHERMAN — My parents used to recount to me happily about the time, before I was born, when they saw Angel Street on Broadway (Angel Street is the other name under which Patrick Hamilton’s Victorian thriller Gaslight sometimes appears).

On this occasion, as the police inspector who comes to the rescue of the distressed damsel goes to hide in the dressing room before her villainous husband returns, he takes his coat, but inadvertently leaves his bowler on the coat  rack. The audience was aghast: “Your hat!” they screamed. “Your hat!” At which point, the policeman hurriedly reappeared, looked around, and says “Oh  yes, I forgot my hat,” snatches it up, and disappears, seconds before the murderous Mr Manningham  enters the parlor.

This didn’t happen in The Sherman Playhouse production, so I can assume that it was not written into the script. Perhaps modern audiences are too sophisticated to shout out warnings in melodramatic situations. However the Sherman audience seemed quite happy with this tale of a helpless woman systematically being driven mad by an evil spouse with low tastes and scurrilous motives.

Vicki J. Sosbe is the frightened Mrs Manningham, who is worried that she is showing signs of the same madness that relegated her mother to an early death in an insane asylum: she has headaches, she loses things, apparently she steals small objects like her husband’s watch and hides them in her jewel case; her memory is confused and disrupted; and when she is left alone in the house she hears imaginary ghosts walking upstairs in the third floor which has been sealed off since Mr Manningham bought the house (using his wife’s little bit of money).

To make matters worse she is intimidated by the servants, especially the young parlor maid Nancy, who is saucy and rude,  clearly with the encouragement of her employer, who makes little secret of his amorous interest in the girl.

Alternating between snarling impatience and unctuous concern, Steve Manzino expresses concern for his wife’s “condition,” doses her with “medicine,” and threatens to have her locked up in a madhouse if she doesn’t stop her unacceptable behavior. Then he flings on his black cape and top hat, and goes off to his evening pursuits.

All seems lost: If Mrs Manning can’t find the missing butcher bill, which her husband claims he gave her for safekeeping just that morning, he intends to take drastic steps!  Punishment is in order!

Ah, but help is on the way. Even as the hapless heroine is sinking into despair, believing that she indeed must be mad like her mother, in walks Viv Berger as Inspector Rough.

“Be strong,  fair lady” he urges. “You are not going mad, and this old detective is here to rescue you!”

He replaces her medicine with some of his own, poured from a pint bottle in his coat pocket, and explains the dark secrets of the house on Angel Street.

He has a theory. All he needs is proof. And if they can find it before Mr Manningham returns…

Berger chews the scenery a bit, playing the policeman as a sort of cross between Columbo, Kojak and Hercule Poirot, but it’s all good fun, and he certainly livens up the gloomy atmosphere.

The performances of the two servants  is also enjoyable. Katya Collazo is the insolent Nancy and Sheila Echevarria is as the elderly, but canny and loyal Elizabeth, without whose help Mrs Manningham may well have been doomed. She has a terrific little scene in which she uses the implacable deadpan poise of the obedient servant to convince Mr Manningham that she will indeed bear witness to his wife’s incompetency. She doesn’t lie; she just lets him think what he wants to, even as she radiates to the audience a state of quiet panic lest he discover Rough hiding in the wardrobe.

Directed by Sherman veteran John Taylor, this isn’t not Law and Order, but Gaslight is an entertaining bit of traditional theater, lovingly costumed by Terry Hawley, with a well made  period set designed by Leif Smith.

(Performances continue weekends until October 10. Call 860-354-3622 for details and reservations.)