Last October, I totally missed the boat on Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House, the popular 2018 adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s novel of the same name—the same novel Orcutt Community Theater’s (OCT) latest production is based on. With Halloween just around the corner, it’s about time I finally jump on the Hill House bandwagon.
Seasonal inspiration aside, I feel more inclined to start watching the show based on my reaction to the play. Similar to The Shining, this ghost story is a slow burn but one that still delivers the right dose of stomach-churning scares when it needs to.
The play begins with introductions—as we meet the show’s four main characters for the first time, so they meet one another. It’s revealed that Dr. Montague (Bob Larsen), an investigator determined to discover concrete evidence of the supernatural, had invited several people to stay with him at Hill House, a large estate he’s rented out for the summer. Rumor has it that the mansion is haunted and the tenacious doctor curated his guest list to include only individuals with some sort of history linked to the paranormal.
The only two strangers to accept his invitation are Eleanor (Angela Herrick, OCT’s Vintage Hitchcock), a recluse with a mysterious past, and Theodora (Jordan Mills, Santa Maria Civic Theatre’s Little Shop of Horrors), a Bohemian artist. The three are joined by Luke Sanderson, (David Bathe, OCT’s Miracle in Bedford Falls), the young heir to the Hill House estate. Throughout the group’s stay at the mansion, meals are prepared according to a strict schedule by the estate’s caretaker, Mrs. Dudley (Nakia Jones, OCT’s Mama Won’t Fly).
Mrs. Dudley is often a subject of ridicule among the other housemates, who frequently mock her stern, seemingly arbitrary routines. In one scene, Eleanor takes her coffee into the living room after breakfast. A bit later, Dudley enters, agitated, and demands whoever still has dirty dishes out return them to the kitchen immediately. Every dish has to be cleaned a put away precisely by such-and-such time, she angrily explains. Some of the housemates are quick to assume the rules are put in place in order for Dudley to appease an evil entity, which would otherwise harm Dudley or themselves.
Meanwhile, Dr. Montague’s wife, Mrs. Montague (Dixie Arthur), has more concrete plans with the estate’s presumed spirits. With the help of her companion, Arthur Parker (Wiley Charles, Jr.), the headmaster of a local boys’ school, Mrs. Montague uses spirit writing to attempt communication with the ghosts that inhabit the mansion.
Powerful acting and production design aside, I have to hand it to the show’s sound effects team—Eli Hastings and Isa Hastings—for helping maintain an unsettling atmosphere throughout the show. This ghost story grabbed me, and there’s no way I’m letting myself miss out on the Netflix iteration before this Halloween passes by.
“When choosing the script for my first attempt at directing, I thought about a few things,” director Brian Kasicki said in the show’s program. “What is going to challenge me? What is going to challenge the actors? What is going to be fun to do and entertaining to see? This script is the one that met all my criteria.”
Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood ain’t afraid of no ghosts. Accuse him of libel at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 10-17, 2019.