In 2022, the Meriam-Webster dictionary named ‘gaslighting’ as Word of the Year. Indeed, since the middle of the previous decade, the term, describing a form of emotional abuse in which the victim is pushed to doubt their own feelings and even their sanity, had started to rank amongst the top Google searches, and the trend has continued to grow since. I doubt Patrick Hamilton knew, when he wrote his most famous play in 1938, that its title would be turned into a common noun to unfortunately still haunt our modern vocabulary.

Yet this is precisely one of the reasons for which I was keen to present this play today. Because, despite having now joined the venerable British theatre canon, almost a hundred years later, Gaslight still has relevance to us. A recent study showed that almost one in three men, and nearly fifty percent of women have experienced some form of psychological abuse in a personal (mainly romantic) relationship. Bella Manningham, our protagonist, surely has something to say then. And I believe in theatre that, beyond entertainment, asks questions, and ignites debates about who we are as individuals.

Beyond its social dimension, the ‘Victorian thriller’, as Hamilton’s original publisher subtitled the play, is indeed also wrapped in shades of darkness. Set in the course of one evening, we follow Bella as she experiences strange things happening around her: lights flickering, objects disappearing, unusual noises filling the house. As she wonders herself: what is real, and what is dream? The boundaries are blurred in the Manningham household, on so many levels (but aren’t they in theatre too?), and the chiaroscuro painted by the burning lamps are as much impressed on the walls as they are on Bella’s mind.

Entering the complexities of human beings’ psyches: what a fascinating and fairly ambitious challenge – albeit endless and probably never fully resolved – but the stage offers us the perfect opportunity to conduct the experiment. And so, I wanted to take the play slightly away from its Victorian rigidity, and make it inhabited by people full of instincts, of flaws, of vulnerabilities. People we can indeed relate to, in one way or another. But I also wanted to be playful with the text, and infuse new elements into the story that could offer a more multifaceted approach into these characters’ lives.

Gaslight has become a theatre classic – and then a cinema classic with the iconic Ingrid Bergman earning her very first Oscar for her performance as Bella. No wonder, containing so many thrilling ingredients. It’s a psychological battle, fought against external voices and internal mind. With one big question: how do we escape the darkness when the light is equally blinding?

Julien Rosa