The Innocents
Mar 9 2007

Charles Cryer Studio Theatre, Carshalton

THIS spooky ghost tale, adapted from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James and directed by Denis Steer, was another feather in the cap for the Chase Theatre Company.

It's not an easy thing to set an eerie period scene and send shivers up the spines of your audience in a modern venue on a sunny afternoon.

But the team did excellently and you would never believe that they were let down by their set designer just a week before the show and had to make contingency arrangements.

The 1880s drawing room looked fine while sound effects, lighting (with lots of long shadows) and the classical music chosen for between-scene pauses all added to the atmosphere of menace. Not to mention the spooky 'apparitions' of the departed evildoers who want to reclaim the lives of two children.

Clare Gollop did a magnificent job of depicting the mounting tension and terror of Miss Giddens, the governess who discovers that her young charges are not as innocent as they at first appear, and Mo Lawton was a homely housekeeper with a well maintained country accent.

There were promising performances from Charlotte Gollop and Sam Goldsmith as Flora and Miles, taking unnerving pleasure in watching as the unspeakable truth about the past gradually reveals itself.

Diana Eccleston