The Turn of the Screw

How can you protect those in your care, if you can't tell what is real?

It’s one of the best known ghost stories in literature. It’s also a cruel surgical dissection of a lonely woman’s fantasies and a devastating account of the reverberations of child abuse among the gentry.

Framed within an asylum, this adaptation by award-winning writer Benjamin Henson interrogates Henry James' macabre classic with the help of haunting live music and puppetry.

A governess is employed to care for two orphaned children in a creaky old mansion by their affluent and distant uncle. As she grows close to Miles and Flora, she becomes obsessed by the idea that they are possessed and are being corrupted by evil spirits who in life exposed them to terrible images. Is she protecting the innocents, or is she manipulating them as puppets animating her own inner demons?

The puppets have been hand carved by HookHitch for this production, and all of the music has been newly composed by the company for this intimate adaptation of the classic story.

Funding assistance provided by GSA Friends.

"a wholly satisfying and thoughtful adaptation of one of the greatest ghost stories ever known"
Fringe Guru
Original Review

"gorgeous"
Fringe Guru
Original Review

“Ingeniuous”
Edinburgh Reporter
Original Review

“a psychological thriller that mesmerises”
Edinburgh Reporter
Original Review

“a dynamic production”
A Younger Theatre
Original Review

“a dynamic production”
A Younger Theatre
Original Review

“an outstanding performance”
Festival Journal
Original Review

“thrilling and entertaining”
Hairline
Original Review

“a fantastic performance”
Hairline
Original Review

Broadway Baby
Original Review