Gaslight by Patrick Hamilton

Gaslight

by Patrick Hamilton

Wednesday 3rd to Saturday 6th December 2008

The play is set in fog-bound London in 1880 at the upper middle class home of Jack Manningham and his wife Bella. It is late afternoon, a time which Hamilton notes as being the time "before the feeble dawn of gaslight and tea".

At the opening of the drama Bella is clearly on edge, and the stern reproaches from her overbearing husband (who flirts with the servants) makes matters worse. What most perturbs Bella is Jack's unexplained disappearances from the house: he will not tell her where he is going, and this increases her anxiety. As the drama unfolds, it becomes clear that Jack is intent on convincing Bella that she is going insane, even to the point of assuring her she is "imagining" the gas light in the house is dimming.

The appearance of a police detective called Rough soon leads Bella to realise that Jack is responsible for her torment. Rough explains that the apartment above was once occupied by one Alice Barlow, a wealthy woman who was murdered for her jewels but that the murderer never uncovered them.

In fact, Jack goes to the flat each night to search for the jewels, and illuminating the gaslights in it causes the lights to dim in the rest of the building. His footsteps in what is supposed to be an empty apartment are used to make Bella believe that she is hearing things.