Governess Louise BennettMillie Emily CrowDirector Amy Gibbs

The Turn of the Screw. Originally written by Henry James in 1898. Script adaptation by Rebecca Lenkiewicz. January 2013 performed in London.

The story focusses on a governess who takes over the care of two children. Throughout the piece she sees the ghost of Peter Quint (a previous employee in the house) The part of the piece that I chose was the end due to its dramatic conclusion and potential for intense and challenging acting.It also intrigued me as when I read the script myself I saw a different ending to that which Henry James first created. There is a big question hanging over how the child diesin Henry James book butI felt that the Governess was in fact the mentally unstable character who loses control and kills her in the end.

I thought it would be a good idea to do this with our piece and after discussing it with Emily and Louise they agreed this would be a good idea. I wanted to use a small amount of tech as,because of its themes (evil, horror etc)dimlightingwhich occasionally changedwould really create atmosphere.The music Hush Hush Hush, Here Comes the Bogey Man was not my first choice as at first I wanted something a little more obviously haunting and scary But when we experimented with this, it felt right to use it and seemed to contribute well to the overall image that we were aiming for. The lyrics discuss trying to get rid of the bogey man which is essentially what the character of the Governess is doing throughout the piece. It also worked as almost a theme tune for Peter Quint whenever he is present in the scene.

The script was edited slightly to show the name Millie instead of Miles as we had two girls in our piece and as we wanted this to be a serious piece and very naturalistic and realistic we thought this would be a good idea. A few parts of the original script were cut or altered due to the fact they relate to something earlier in the play which would be lost on our audience.

Thetwosounds heard at the end of the piece were a whisper sound effect and a ghost breath sound effect just to add a little suspense as it came to an end.

The costumes were chosen to reflect the time period (Victorian) though we didnt necessarily stick to this for the music as we wanted to add a small contemporary twist to bring it to the current day a little bit.We used minimal and simple props: a box, a cushion and a candle.