KCAT’s Gaslight is a tense thriller staged as a razor wire balancing act

Gaslight. // Photo by Brian Paulette

In one of society’s highest compliments, the 1938 play Gaslight by Patrick Hamilton was elevated to such notoriety that, in the last decade, it achieved verbification. Those unfamiliar with the ’38 thriller for the stage, or the 1944 Hollywood film featuring a young Angela Lansbury, still know exactly what the term means. Hamilton’s taught thriller succinctly bottled up so much of toxic masculinity into a single storyline that it serves as a sort of ur-text for subtle undermining, emotional manipulation, and darkness masquerading as love.

Kansas City Actors Theatre (KCAT) wraps up its 19th season of productions with its current staging of the seminal work. Director Cinnamon Schultz brings a vitality and urgency to material that, in lesser hands, could very easily feel dusted-off and dated.

This 1938 Victorian thriller, famous for its Academy Award-winning adaptation to the big screen, details the dark tale of a marriage based on deceit, and a husband committed to driving his wife to the brink of insanity. In it, Bella Manningham (played by Ashlee LaPine) is introduced to us out of the gate as a woman already teetering on the edge. Her manic energy and panicked reactions skips the film’s introductory act, that goes back to establish what kind of woman Bella was before things turned dark. Bella’s husband Jack (Matthew J. Williamson) brings a cold cruelty to the stage, with a wry psychopathy that indicates he’s the kind of dude who might take pleasure in torturing animals. The faithful household servants (Kendra Keller and Leah Dalrymple) are respectively an angel and a devil on the shoulders of our leads. With a household where the man commands the women around him like he’s obedience training dogs, a shadowy portrait is painted of what the future holds for all involved.

Gaslight. // Photo by Brian Paulette

While her husband is out on one of his many mysterious escapades, Bella is visited by a stranger (John Rensenhouse) who has a series of startling revelations for the tortured madame. He’s a former police inspector named Rough who is haunted by the one case he never did solve—the murder of a rich woman by her husband in this very house, 15 years prior. With some base knowledge about Bella and Jack, he thinks there’s a conspiracy at play to push Bella into the dark hereafter. What follows is an investigation into both a cold case and a warm house of mirrors, as Rough rushes against a ticking clock to find the proof necessary to save Bella’s life.

Each detail of the KCAT staging serves to only elevate the material here, pushing what is a fine but nearly century-old script into the realm of nail-biting thriller. The score wafts in at points, mixed so low you’ll wonder if you’re the only one that can hear that music. The set is spread in such a way as to make every cross or conversation somehow physically imposed upon. Then the heightened emotions of the leads along with the narrative ticking clock make every minute of the second act feel like a tightrope walk.

At one point, an extended segment sees a maid resetting the stage and adjusting some lights. In a lesser production, this clearing of props for two minutes would seem like an annoying aside—here, Schultz makes it a maddening delay in the inevitable encroachment of our villain.

The actors themselves all tackle their character with verve and conviction, but none more so than Rensenhouse’s former detective, whose blend between Columbo and Wonka somehow is an unlikely yet perfect match to LaPine’s tumble through reality.

This is a high recommend from us.

Gaslight is showing until February 4, 2024 at the City Stage in Union Station. Ticket prices start at $20 and can be purchased online or by phone at (816) 361-5228.