By Adam Rafferty
The fact that Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 gothic thriller novel Rebecca has been adapted for the screen and stage innumerable times across the last eighty-odd years is simple proof of the timeless qualities of the dark and suspenseful story. So, it makes sense that MTC Artistic Director Anne Louise Sarks chose to adapt and direct a new production of this tale as a cornerstone of the 2025 season.
For those who might have missed the many versions, Rebecca tells the story of an unnamed woman (Nikki Shiels) who meets a wealthy widower, Maxim de Winter (Stephen Phillips) in Monte Carlo while working as a ladies’ companion. Maxim’s late wife Rebecca died in a sailing accident a year earlier, and after a short courtship the woman becomes the second Mrs de Winter, returning with her new husband to his coastal Cornish estate, ‘Manderley’. The vast house has an atmosphere of foreboding about it and is instantly unwelcoming, as are the staff, including housekeeper Mrs Danvers (Pamela Rabe). As Rebecca’s former ladies’ maid Mrs Danvers constantly measures the new Mrs De Winter up against her, psychologically undermining her and making her feel isolated. This builds to a crescendo when a costume ball is held and the woman is encouraged by Mrs Danvers to wear a dress that’s a replica of one worn in a portrait of one of Manderley’s former residents. This ends in a furious outburst from Maxim and a spiral into murder, suicide attempts, cover-ups and even blackmail, as Rebecca’s cousin Jack (Toby Truslove) arrives to complicate circumstances even more.
Stylistically, Sarks has taken a page from the playbook of Kip Williams, the former Artistic Director of Sydney Theatre Company and his triptych of gothic novel stage adaptations, (The Picture of Dorian Gray, Jekyll & Hyde and Dracula). For while Sarks doesn’t use cameras to film the story, the subject matter and style of this adaptation is most certainly a spiritual cousin or successor to Williams’ work. Like those productions, it has a narrator who is central to the story, never leaving the stage and setting the tone for the entire play with sparse staging and an eerie soundtrack.
That this production also looks visually like a clear relative to those plays is no mistake either, with the Set and Costume Designer Marg Horwell being behind those three works as well. Her style creates a stage that is both sparse and full at the same time, working simply with furniture pieces and lighting to suggest time and place on an otherwise empty black stage with revolve. But the exquisite design, including an enormous oval portrait mirror hanging on its side over the stage, gives each piece rich detail and fills it with character – vases of flowers on stands are stuffed to overflowing, fireplaces are alight with wild flame, wardrobes and dressers are ornately beautiful, and eventually everything becomes overgrown with tangled vine, like a relative of Grey Gardens. Costumes are both garishly beautiful and perfectly dour when required to be.
Paul Jackson paints these pieces skilfully with lighting that creates both ambiance and physical spaces through beautiful use of colours and gothic tones. This visual feast is embellished by the creepily atmospheric sound compositions of Grace Ferguson and Joe Paradise Lui, building on the tautness created by Sarks’ languid build-up of tension that bursts into a wild and crazy final third.
This is the only place where the production loses its way slightly though, due mostly I think to Rabe, Truslove and even Phillips doubling for other characters (besides their main roles), creating a situation where it’s difficult to tell who Shiels is playing throughout key sequences of the story when the second Mrs de Winter finds a confidence in herself and her relationship with Mrs Danvers changes. Is she now Rebecca or the unnamed woman? Or has she just become like her? Is that style change, combined with the fantastical overgrowth of vines designed to indicate a flashback or dreamlike state? It’s a little bit befuddling but thankfully finds its way back to clarity and a powerful ending by the finale.
Regardless of the confusion, performances are first class, as Shiels holds the audience in the palm of her hand from the floaty first half right through to the flaming denouement. Rabe is magnificent as always, demonstrating her consummate skill for delivering an invective, Phillips is perfectly aloof, distant and explosively fiery, while Truslove bounces jauntily from Maxim’s trustworthy advisor Frank to the lascivious and cocky Jack.
For those who enjoy gothic romance and suspense, this production delivers in spades, bringing all the story’s ominous tension to jangling life while feeding the senses with sumptuous sights and sounds. Perfect for this season of the spook!
