Oldham Coliseum’s production of Patrick Hamilton’s psychological thriller Gaslight opens in February.
In an ordinary house, on an ordinary road, in a gloomy and unfashionable London suburb, Mrs Bella Manningham grows more anxious and paranoid. But what if she is right and there really is something sinister going on in the house?
Gaslight was one of Hamilton’s most popular works. It premièred at the Apollo Theatre in London’s West End in 1938 and opened on Broadway in 1941 under the title Angel Street. It has been adapted for film and television several times, most famously in 1944 starring Ingrid Bergman.
It gave rise to the term ‘gaslighting’: a form of emotional and psychological manipulation that last year triggered national debate when it was used in the domestic abuse storyline on BBC Radio 4’s The Archers.
Oldham Coliseum Theatre’s production will be directed by Robin Herford, famed as director of The Woman In Black, which has been sending chills down audience spines on the West End for 27 years.
Gaslight will run from February 3 to 18.