WHEN THE ONLY TENSION IS IN THE CORSET:
GASLIGHT IS ALL DIM AND NO SPARK AT PRT
Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 play, Gas Light (now known as Gaslight) is a melodrama which follows a young woman whose husband slowly manipulates her into believing she is descending into insanity. This one-time taut psychological thriller is set in Victorian England, when the use of gas to light a room was a new innovation; thus, when the gas was lit in one part of the house, the light level dipped briefly in other parts, a technical detail that provides a crucial plot point. Originally three acts, the play has seen many adaptations with various titles, but is known best from George Cukor’s 1944 silver-screen masterpiece (with a 17-year-old Angela Lansbury in her film debut), which took three writers–John Van Druten, Walter Reisch, and John L. Balderston–to get it right.
Jaxon Duff Gwillim
As with his infinitely better Rope (1929; filmed by Hitchcock in 1944), Hamilton excels at claustrophobic chamber pieces in which your most pernicious foe is in the room with you, one of the most unsettling aspects of Gaslight. So much so that it gave rise to the term “gaslighting” as a form of manipulation to get what you want or need from someone else. However, at Pacific Resident Theatre, Hamilton’s play shows its age as a creaky, talky melodrama, which perhaps has allure. It’s difficult to understand why, as the press release states, the play “has captivated generations with its incisively sharp dialogue and unabating tension.” Given this production, I experienced neither.
Tania Getty, Jaxon Duff Gwillim
Despite its reputation—the play feels meandering and repetitive with superficial characters, and, most surprisingly, a mystery which is all but solved halfway through, leaving the audience with little to ponder except whether the wife, Mrs. Manningham, will finally stand up to her husband and testify against him, or take her wealth and run off with the kind detective, Rough, who reveals that Mr. Manningham (possibly not even his real name) will do nothing short of driving his wife insane by manipulating evidence to get her committed to an asylum so he can abscond with the spoils of marriage (the detective reveals her husband has done this several times before). The only thing left of suspense is wondering what the husband will do when he realizes she knows the truth.
Tania Getty, Stuart W. Howard
Along with a lack of tension and punch due to sluggishness and an uneven tone, it’s difficult to believe Tania Getty (who also produced the play) as a young woman with an innocence that could easily be manipulated. Plus, her Mrs. Manningham looks uncomfortably poured into a Victorian gown (by Shon LeBlanc) that distracts more than it enhances. Her performance, like that of Jaxon Duff Gwillim as her husband, is emotionally flat. Lines are recited rather than lived. As Rough, Stuart W. Howard grasps the nature of his character with quiet intensity, offering a much-needed anchor. Miranda Wynne (so compelling in Rotterdam at the Kirk Douglas) and the stiff-backed Rita Obermeyer bring period authenticity to the Manningham housekeepers. They offer a glimpse of the subtlety the play should possess and understand the restrained energy of the Victorian age.
Michael Rothhaa‘s static direction in PRT’s smaller space shows no sign of depth perception into the soul of feminine natural intelligence. We need to feel the manipulation and mistrust—but here, the only thing suffocating is the pacing.
Jaxon Duff Gwillim, Miranda Wynne
The entire play occurs in just one room in a house on Angel Street, located in “the Pimlico district of London in 1880.” With a double door entrance into perhaps a drawing room, Taubert Nadalini‘s set is overloaded with period furniture–including a fancy chaise where tea is served in classic blue-and-white china–so we can easily assume that there is wealth within the marriage. The focal point, of course, are the wall gaslights and table lamp, which are lit and turned off with more suspenseful impact than the rest of the play, adding the only, and much-needed, touch of noir (lights by Michael Franco).
Tania Getty, Jaxon Duff Gwillim
Perhaps it was just too early for me to see the play on opening night. Perhaps as the run continues through August 10, the performances will grow into the material. As it stands, the production lacks the chilling mood and sharp character development needed to convince us that Mrs. Manningham is in danger of losing her husband—or her mind. Thank goodness I only lost an evening.
photos by Phil Cass
Gaslight
Pacific Resident Theatre, 703 Venice Boulevard in Venice
2 hours, 10 minutes with intermission
Thurs-Sat at 8; Sun at 3; Sat at 3 (July 5, August 2)
ends on August 10, 2025
for tickets ($35–$45; student rush $12), call 310.822.8392 or visit PRT
for more shows, visit Theatre in LA
