The Haunting of Hill House was first adapted for the stage by F. Andrew Leslie in 1964. Since then, it has become a staple of the Halloween season for many theatres. Very few actors are needed, and the set (scene design pictured below) is easily constructed and involves little to no maneuvering during the production outside of ghostly special effects. The simplicity of the performance allows the audience to focus on the plot and its psychological effects.
I would say it's more intense than just watching a film of a scary movie. It's being in an intimate setting like this and seeing it actually happen. It makes it real; it makes it more real than just watching a film... Just knowing that you don't know what's happening, and it's happening live. -Brian Treybig as Doctor Montague Being in the show... I love it because you're not sitting across from a TV screen; you're actually seeing it, feeling it. You're living it; you're doing it; the loud noises happen. -Kayleigh Crockford as Theodora |
In their 2015-2016 season, the award-winning Clear Creek Community Theatre staged the play for Halloween in Nassau Bay, Texas from October 23- November 8. The production was well received, described as "tak[ing] the cliché seasonal 'scary' play that many of community theaters produce and actually us[ing] the opportunity to bring [Hill House] alive."
I think the real horror of the show is the fact that the house itself tends to alter people and bring out the worst in them. -Jacob Magnum as Luke Sanderson |
While creating a production of any theatrical piece, the cast and crew often become submerged in the minds and motives of their roles and the world in which they temporarily inhabit. By meticulously immersing themselves in Hill House, the ensemble becomes intimately connected with the intricacies of the text and characters, giving them a unique perspective and relative authority over the play and characters they have come to know so well. Below are interviews conducted as publicity pieces for the play in which the actors and crew make astute judgments on the nature of the production and its characters including Hill House itself.
[Eleanor] needs something to latch onto, and she's chosen this group of people. -Christine Kaye as Eleanor Vance We don't get to see all of it, and for that reason it's a little bit more terrifying because our imagination fills in the blank spaces. -Jacob Magnum |
Despite the arguable drawbacks of live stage performances such as limited set and effects, The Haunting of Hill House seems particularly suited to this change of medium with its small cast and few scenes outside the house that may be omitted fairly easily without affecting the narrative too dramatically. However, there are some necessary changes that do alter the way the audience experiences the narrative. For example, let us compare the novel's famous opening lines to the setting description offered by Leslie:
The time is the present. The place is Hill House, a brooding, isolated and innately forbidding mansion located deep in the back country of an Eastern State. The action is confined to a single set, which includes a windowless parlor and, at stage right, a small bedroom... (5)
While arguably less eloquent than Jackson's introduction to Hill House, Leslie is successful in capturing the tone of the place to which he will transport the audience. It is the stage adapter's mission to take the original text and condense it into only the necessary ratio of description and lines so that it may be related effectively by the cast and crew without compromising the artistic liberty of the individuals involved in the production. The ability of each crew to interpret and produce the play according to their own understandings of the script provided is unique to the stage, and provides new life to the story with each performance. Indeed,
"every live staging of a printed play could theoretically be considered an adaptation in its performance. The text of a play does not necessarily tell an actor about such matters as the gestures, expressions, and tones of voice to use in converting words on a page into a convincing performance; it is up to the director and actors to actualize the text and to interpret and then recreate it, thereby in a sense adapting it for the stage" (Hutcheon, 39).
In this way, stage productions are more fluid than either the later film adaptations or the original novel, which, once created, are cemented in their details and interpretations of the sequence of events. Though Theodora wears a red sweater during her first day at Hill House in the book, the possibilities are endless in a stage version where costume designers may endlessly choose a new color. Filmmakers may choose only once, and so are locked into their decisions.
There are challenges in stage adaptations as well, however. In order to effectively relate the story to its audience, "a performance adaptation must dramatize: description, narration, and represented thoughts must be transcoded into speech, actions, sounds, and visual images” (Hutcheon, 40). This often presents a challenge to include the inner details of the characters, which must be either vocalized or omitted if they cannot be encompassed creatively in physical performance. Most often, characters' inner thoughts and feelings make up a majority of the description in a novel, and that is no different in Hill House. Schneider reveals that "Jackson spends more time detailing Eleanor’s thoughts, fears, and insecurities than she does describing the external activities of everyone else (save for the house itself) combined"(169), which unfortunately results in a loss of much of the descriptors that cannot be portrayed through body language or dialogue. This phenomenon is not unique to Hill House, however, as Hutcheon submits: "All performance media are said to lose internal character motivation in the shift to externalization” (42). This is certainly true for stage performance, but without further exploration into film adaptations of fiction, the same conclusion cannot be assumed.
"every live staging of a printed play could theoretically be considered an adaptation in its performance. The text of a play does not necessarily tell an actor about such matters as the gestures, expressions, and tones of voice to use in converting words on a page into a convincing performance; it is up to the director and actors to actualize the text and to interpret and then recreate it, thereby in a sense adapting it for the stage" (Hutcheon, 39).
In this way, stage productions are more fluid than either the later film adaptations or the original novel, which, once created, are cemented in their details and interpretations of the sequence of events. Though Theodora wears a red sweater during her first day at Hill House in the book, the possibilities are endless in a stage version where costume designers may endlessly choose a new color. Filmmakers may choose only once, and so are locked into their decisions.
There are challenges in stage adaptations as well, however. In order to effectively relate the story to its audience, "a performance adaptation must dramatize: description, narration, and represented thoughts must be transcoded into speech, actions, sounds, and visual images” (Hutcheon, 40). This often presents a challenge to include the inner details of the characters, which must be either vocalized or omitted if they cannot be encompassed creatively in physical performance. Most often, characters' inner thoughts and feelings make up a majority of the description in a novel, and that is no different in Hill House. Schneider reveals that "Jackson spends more time detailing Eleanor’s thoughts, fears, and insecurities than she does describing the external activities of everyone else (save for the house itself) combined"(169), which unfortunately results in a loss of much of the descriptors that cannot be portrayed through body language or dialogue. This phenomenon is not unique to Hill House, however, as Hutcheon submits: "All performance media are said to lose internal character motivation in the shift to externalization” (42). This is certainly true for stage performance, but without further exploration into film adaptations of fiction, the same conclusion cannot be assumed.