REVIEW - 'Gaslight', Horncastle Lion Theatre Company, Friday 21st November - ****.5/5

Patrick Hamilton’s Gaslight may be a familiar psychological thriller—its very title having inspired a now-ubiquitous term for emotional manipulation—but Adele Simpson’s assured directorial debut proves there is still plenty of menace left in this Victorian nightmare. Simpson transports her audience straight into the oppressive fog of 19th-century London, delivering a tense, tightly paced production that hums with dread.

'Gaslight' poster design (c) Lion Theatre Company

The story follows Bella and Jack Manningham, newly settled into a London townhouse where the gaslights flicker, objects vanish, and the boundaries of sanity blur. From the outset, Cheryl Vallely’s Bella is a portrait of quiet desperation—hands clasped, voice trembling, eyes downcast—a woman shrinking in her own home. Opposite her, Chris Liversidge’s Jack is a masterclass in genteel cruelty, with an unfaltering, unwavering performance: calm, collected, and terrifyingly controlled. His charm glides thinly over a chilling undercurrent, snapping into fury with unnerving ease. Their dynamic forms the play’s psychological core, and both actors hold it with conviction.

The household’s servants become satellites in Jack’s orbit of manipulation. Natasha Lowes gives Nancy, the impertinent maid, a sly, flirtatious bite, allowing her disdain for Bella to simmer just beneath the surface. Marie Holmes, as Elizabeth, offers the opposite: a steady, watchful presence, careful not to provoke Jack’s temper while quietly anchoring Bella’s fraying sanity.

Jerry Smith’s Inspector Rough brings a welcome burst of eccentricity and warmth. With carefully measured whimsy and a delightful insistence on over-sweetened tea, he becomes both Bella’s unexpected ally and the production’s tonal relief. Even when a line misfired, Smith remained deftly in character—his absent-minded detective persona turning the moment into an asset rather than a distraction.

Cheryl Vallely and Jeremy Smith in 'Gaslight' (c) Lion Theatre Company

Simpson’s attention to detail is evident throughout the staging. The Victorian set is richly atmospheric: gaslights that dim on cue, heavy velvet furnishings, fireplace, and even a lighter square of wallpaper behind the missing picture—each element adding texture to Bella’s unravelling world, and, despite ample space on the Lion Theatre's stage, the set gives off an authentic sense of knife-edge claustrophobia, with movement often, but tactfully, appearing 'choked'. The sound design underscores these creeping revelations with ominous restraint (though not quite as subtly as perhaps intentioned), and the costumes complete the illusion.

Adele Simpson delivers a remarkably confident first outing: atmospheric, intelligent, and deeply respectful of the text without ever feeling museum-stiff. Her vision is clear, her pacing sharp, and her cast evidently inspired by her hand. It's an uncomfortable watch, at times, but riveting.