It was just a little bit earlier this year that I went to see my first Ira Levin play – it was a production of his 1978 masterpiece Deathtrap, and I was completely captivated throughout. I thought that the plot was fiendishly clever, and the way in which the story was told was so original – a breath of fresh air. That is why I was so excited to hear that this year’s Colin McIntyre Classic Thriller Season here at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham would feature another of Levin’s pieces – his 1973 play Veronica’s Room. Levin is perhaps most famous for being the genius behind the evergreen 1968 Paramount Pictures behemoth Rosemary’s Baby and the ever-popular social satire that closely followed in 1972 – The Stepford Wives. Aware of the genius of Levin’s work, I skip to the theatre this evening in the sure and certain knowledge that I’m about to be well and truly led up the garden path and given a thrill or three along the way.
Veronica’s Room centres around newly dating students Susan (Hannah Blaikie) and Larry (David Osmond), who find themselves invited to the foreboding Brabissant Mansion by its charming Irish caretakers John (Jeremy Lloyd Thomas) and Maureen (Susan Earnshaw) Mackey. The latter pair are struck, upon a chance encounter with the students in a restaurant, by the extraordinary resemblance between Susan and the long-dead daughter of the family for whom they work – a girl by the name of Veronica. They persuade Susan to agree to impersonate Veronica in order to console the bewildered and now very elderly sister of the dead girl, for whom they are full-time carers. Once dressed in Veronica’s old clothes, Susan finds herself trapped in Veronica’s old room as a fresh hell unfolds before her eyes. It would be a travesty to say any more about the plot than this, because it would completely spoil the surprise and thus your enjoyment of the show. Suffice to say that all is not as it at first appears.
Blaikie is absolutely electrifying as the titular character of ‘Susan/Veronica’ giving a performance that is intense and suitably unsettling. It is an energetic portrayal which must be completely draining given the high emotional charge needed to convey the abject panic and horror of the situation that she finds herself in. She inhabits the role completely and drives much of the action forward as the evening proceeds. We the audience share her doubt about what is transpiring, as well as her certainty.
The gentlemen performers in tonight’s production are impeccable – they are both completely mesmerising and the transformations that occur in their characters across the piece are executed to perfection. Osmond delivers a character who is great at planting seeds of doubt quite brilliantly, and we genuinely fear for his safety at the end of Act One. His eventual reappearance in Act Two is perhaps the most shocking of all, not least because of the sublime delivery of his lines and the powerful way in which he uses his voice. Lloyd Thomas draws us in with his cheerful Irish brogue in the early parts of the play, and by the end his character’s involvement in proceedings is chilling. This is in no small part due to the awesome and uncomfortable empathy that he effortlessly communicates.
Earnshaw’s second act transformation is so impressively creepy that with just a switch of accent, a new wig and a few costume tweaks it is like watching a completely different performer. Such versatility! Those facial expressions are tremendous!
It is a long held theatrical truism that the most powerful and terrifying form of horror belongs in the realm of the psychological. It is not what we know and see that haunts us most, but rather what we do not know and do not see. Karen Henson, director, and John Goodrum, the designer both understand and utilise this concept to perfection. This is illustrated in particular by the use of an open window, veiled by a net curtain that flutters and billows at certain key moments of the action. This seems to foreshadow the unsettling horrors that unfold within. It is as if the set, like the audience, holds its breath and heaves a sigh of eerie relief every now and then. The writing and staging complement each other perfectly in this production and the resulting effect upon the audience is exactly as it should be.
It is only at the magnificently tense finale that we learn the truth of what we have been witnessing, along with the actual identity of each character. There is resolution, of sorts, although chillingly so, and it is worth noting that there is an age 15+ advisory on the audience because of this dark and sinister finale.
This production is everything that an evening in the company of the genius that is Ira Levin promises to be. Go and see it – you’ll not be disappointed. Just beware of any seemingly well-meaning strangers in the queue for the ice creams…
Playing at the Nottingham Theatre Royal until Saturday 24th August 2024.
Some serious hooks in this review! Feeling the need to see the production: sounds as though it was well executed.