Christmas is the season for goodwill, warm hearths, and ghosts, real and imagined. Dark days and chill nights conjure tales of things tapping at the window or lingering in the shadows. The Everyman Theatre takes advantage of the holiday's dual spirit by offering up suspense and mystery in December with Deceived. The adaptation (by Johanna Wright and Patty Jamieson) is based on the classic thriller,Gaslight, famously a movie made in 1944 with Ingrid Bergman. Director Vincent M. Lancisi delivers an elegant and eerie production with nuanced performances and pitch-perfect lighting, sound and scenic design.
The production reminds you just how dangerous a well-appointed living room can be. The lights go down, the gaslamps flicker, and suddenly, everyone is whispering, looking suspicious, and the furniture has more emotional stability than the leading couple. Well, they seem fine in the beginning. Bella (Katie Kleiger) is the perfect Victorian wife, demure and delicate. She is the angel in the house, and her husband, Jack (Zack Powell) is charming, protective and only slightly sinister. Kleiger wafts through the first scene like a beautiful caged butterfly, perfectly coiffed and divinely dressed. Her nerves are so finely tuned they might well be harp strings. Which may be why she starts to lose her grip on reality for the rest of the evening. She suffers beautifully, which is really the only tasteful way to suffer. Powell, on the other hand, hovers over the household with polished precision. Is it love, control or a bit of both?
Lurking on the edges of all this anxiety is Elizabeth (Deborah Hazlett), who manages the household and its hysteria without succumbing to it. Hazlett projects calmness and clarity with a tinge of humour and well-earned wisdom. She is the moral anchor in this house of doubt. Along comes Nancy (Em Whitworth), ostensibly hired to keep the household dusted and less deranged. Whitworth steals the scene with her saucy silence, sly flirtation and smooth talent for lighting the gaslamps.
Scenic designer Daniel Ettinger delivers a gorgeously detailed set, with all the lushness and claustrophobia of the era. The lighting by Harold F. Burgess II and sound by Sun Hee Kil are integral to the plot, casting shadows and murmurs that wind their tendrils around the story. DECEIVED is a stylish descent into danger wrapped in Everyman's trademark sophistication.
Lancisi orchestrates the tension with admirable patience, letting it simmer until the whole theatre feels like a pot left on the stove by someone who insists everything is fine. So, take a break from lights and jingles, let the fog roll in and lose yourself in the ghostly glow of gaslight.
DECEIVED runs now through January 4 at the Everyman Theatre, located at 315 West Fayette St. For tickets and more information call (410) 752-2208 or go to everymantheatre.org
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