Review: Hill House haunts Harrogate

Lauren Crisp is a book editor, writer and keen follower of arts and culture. She reviews theatre and cultural events in and around the district in her spare time.

You can contact Lauren on laurencrispwriter@gmail.com.

As Halloween approaches, Harrogate Dramatic Society’s (HDS) latest production, The Haunting of Hill House, is just the ghostly tale to haunt Harrogate Theatre’s halls.

F. Andrew Leslie’s play, based on Shirley Jackson’s 1959 book of the same name, tells the tale of a brooding mansion with a very sinister history to which a scholar of the occult, Dr Montague (Stuart Newsome), invites a small group of ‘psychically receptive’ people to stay.

The doctor, eager to investigate the unfriendly pile’s curious phenomena, is joined by Luke (Matt Snowden), the charming heir to the house, and two women, specifically chosen for their experiences with the unexplained: strong-willed Theodora (Carole Carpenter) and timid, troubled Eleanor (Rebecca Evans).

A haughty Mrs Montague (Mel James) and her curious companion Arthur Parker (Chris Cowling) arrive later, eager to try their hand at communicating with ‘the other side’.

We also meet the house’s caretaker, Mrs Dudley, performed by a suitably deadpan Katie Andrew, who sets the play’s tone when, upon welcoming the guests to the house, asserts:

The cast handle F. Andrew Leslie’s overly wordy script well, with just a couple of opening-night hiccoughs during particularly lengthy monologues. 

By no means the fault of the production, the play’s excessive dialogue waters down some of its would-be eeriness.

Despite the limitations of their source material, HDS adopt the haunted house motif with verve: doors close by themselves, lights flicker, eery laughter fills the theatre and writing appears on walls. 

The imprints of hands appear to grab and grasp through wooden doors, a particularly successful effect.

The set, an austere, wood-panelled parlour, filled with antique furniture, is well curated; a raised bedroom set to stage left provides the scene for Eleanor’s nighttime horrors. Costume, by Lesley Wheal, is also effective, planting us firmly in the past.

While not teeming with scares, The Haunting of Hill House gets spooky season off to a sinister start. 

The Haunting of Hill House is on at Harrogate Theatre until Saturday, October 19, 2024.