UpStage Napa Valley Brings Timely Thriller “Gaslight” to St. Helena and Calistoga
By Sasha Paulsen
Summary: UpStage Napa Valley is presenting “Gaslight,” Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 thriller about coercion, deception and a woman’s struggle to trust her own perceptions. The production runs through July 19 at Grace Episcopal Church in St. Helena before moving to Calistoga’s Brannan Center for performances July 24-26. The Calistoga engagement will mark the company’s debut at the newly opened performing arts center and offer another test of where local theater can find a dependable stage.
UpStage Napa Valley Brings Timely Thriller “Gaslight” to St. Helena and Calistoga
by Sasha Paulsen
CALISTOGA, Calif. – It takes the audience at “Gaslight” a minute or two to realize that young Bella Manningham has unwittingly married Snidely Whiplash.
Of course, Bella, a well-bred Victorian housewife, would not have had the advantage of watching “The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends” in the 1960s and therefore immediately recognizing the archenemy of Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties in her wicked spouse who is craftily manipulating, tormenting, taunting, deceiving and humiliating her, intent, apparently, on making her believe she is going mad.
It will take much longer for the naïve, well-trained Bella to accept that her instincts, presently being shredded into sausage, are valid: Something is dreadfully wrong in her middle-class London home, and it is not that she is losing her marbles.
This is the premise of “Gaslight,” the new production from UpStage Napa Valley, which opened July 10 in St. Helena and will move on July 24 to Calistoga’s Brannan Center for three performances. It will be a first for the theater troupe to perform in the newly opened performing arts center.
“It’s an experiment,” said Sharie Renault, artistic director of UpStage Napa Valley, formed a decade ago with a goal of presenting “provocative theater that catalyzes relevant conversations to enrich, heal and transform our relationships and communities,” according to their mission statement. Like other theater people in the valley, Renault is keenly aware that one of the major challenges of presenting local theater is not finding talented actors and supportive audiences — it’s finding a place to present their plays.
Today’s Puzzler: Semicolon Sleuth
This sentence has a punctuation problem. How many commas need an upgrade? Find the answer at the bottom of the page.
Elena said the tasting would begin at noon, however, the winemaker was still in the cellar, meanwhile, the chef kept the flatbread warm, nevertheless, the first guests remained cheerful.
In St. Helena, UpStage Napa Valley actors perform at Grace Episcopal Church and rehearse in the nearby Presbyterian Church. It means transforming a meeting hall into a theater, bringing in risers, lights and chairs as well as sets.
“Without them, we would not be able to present shows,” Renault said.
At the Brannan Center, they will be working in a real theater.
“It’s expensive,” she said. “It’s designed more for music than theater. But we are hopeful.”
She has picked a winner for their Brannan Center debut.
In 2018, the word “gaslighting,” which denotes a manipulative tactic on the part of an abuser to lead victims to doubt their own perceptions of reality, was a runner-up for the Oxford English Dictionary’s Word of the Year. In an era of “post-truth” and “alternative facts,” the term was acquiring relevance, but it had actually originated with “Gas Light,” written in 1938 by British playwright Patrick Hamilton.
While his own tumultuous times might have inspired a play focused on distinguishing reality from bombastic machinations, Hamilton set “Gas Light” in Victorian London, a time when married women were heavily constrained by patriarchal laws; wives could not vote, own property, keep their wages or retain custody of their children if they left a marriage.
Bella is a perfect product of the times. Portrayed with poignancy and compelling grace by Kali Curtis, she is clearly not a nitwit. Her husband leaves her every evening, but she suspects he secretly returns to the upper floor of the house he has bought (with her money) and which he has forbidden her to enter. She hears footsteps and, most tellingly, the gas lights in her parlor dim, as they habitually do when lights are being used elsewhere in the house.
Russ Kladko as her husband, Jack, is a splendid villain — pompous, sly and attractive — at least to their maid, Nancy (Sarah Beth Abernathy), with whom he flirts in Bella’s presence. And the amorous Nancy is all too willing to respond, presumably with her own goal of becoming the next Mrs. Manningham after Bella has been carted off to the asylum to join a multitude of other Victorian wives. One hopes Bella will wallop her Snidely with her teapot, but she only sinks deeper into confusion and self-doubt. “Be kind to me,” she pleads, but he is far more likely to be spotted tying her to the nearest train track.
Why is he doing this? What is his object? Here the story pivots from a domestic drama to a mystery thriller with the arrival of a stranger. Inspector Rough is on the trail of a long-unsolved murder, and this has brought him to her door. Fred Ireland is a delight as the determined detective armed with steadfast common sense and a flask of scotch. But can Bella trust him? Is he Dudley Do-Right? Is he an angel trying to earn his wings by helping her if she will help him? Could he possibly be right that her husband is not just a creep but a criminal?
Fortunately, Bella has one more unexpected ally, the housekeeper, Elizabeth, played by Lauren Haugan. She is the quietly observant servant who has not missed one of Jack’s devious tricks.
The cast is rounded out by Zach Schuster as a policeman, who becomes part of an immensely satisfying conclusion.
“Gaslight” runs through July 19 at Grace Episcopal Church in St. Helena and then moves to the Brannan Center July 24 to 26. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 1:30 p.m. For reservations call (707) 341-3278 or go online to UpStageNapaValley.org.
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Sasha Paulsen is a journalist and novelist who lives in Napa.
Today’s Polls:
Poem of the Day:
“Much Madness is divinest Sense - (620)”
By Emily Dickinson
Much Madness is divinest Sense - To a discerning Eye - Much Sense - the starkest Madness - ’Tis the Majority In this, as all, prevail - Assent - and you are sane - Demur - you’re straightway dangerous - And handled with a Chain -
About the author: Emily Dickinson (1830–86) was an American poet born in Amherst, Massachusetts, whose work reshaped the possibilities of lyric poetry. Though she wrote nearly 1,800 poems, only a handful were published during her lifetime, often anonymously and without her distinctive punctuation. After her death, her manuscripts were discovered and gradually restored to their original form, revealing a compressed, elliptical style marked by slant rhyme, abrupt syntax and philosophical intensity.
Writing in the mid-19th century alongside figures such as Walt Whitman, Dickinson developed a radically interior voice that would influence 20th-century poets, including Marianne Moore, Hart Crane and Elizabeth Bishop. Nature was one of her central subjects but rarely as simple description; instead, landscape becomes a field for perception, doubt and revelation. In “A Light exists in Spring,” seasonal change is rendered with precision and restraint, turning a moment of bloom into a meditation on presence, beauty and the subtle ache that accompanies passing radiance.
Are you a poet, or do you have a favorite piece of verse you’d like to share? Napa Valley Features invites you to submit your poems for consideration in this series. Email your submissions to napavalleyfeatures@gmail.com with the subject line: “Poem of the Day Submission.” Selected poets will receive a one-year paid subscription to Napa Valley Features (a $60 value). We can’t wait to hear from you.
Today’s Caption Contest:
Pick your favorite caption or add your own in the comments below.
Possible Captions:
“He had ordered the large.”
“It looked innocent, but so had the vacuum cleaner.”
“After years of obedience training, the final exam had arrived.”
“The tiny altar demanded a sacrifice. Preferably bacon-flavored.”
“At last, a dessert that understood his cultural heritage.”
Last Week’s Contest Results:
In “Aetna Springs’ Second Life as Wildland,” the winning caption was “Never feed them directions. They’ll come back with friends,” with 40% of the votes.
Caption Options:
“Never feed them directions. They’ll come back with friends.”
“If they approach, don’t make eye contact and slowly chew some grass.”
“When they ask where the old resort was, just gesture vaguely with your antlers.”
“The trick is to let them think they discovered the trail.”
“Remember: They are more afraid of quiet than we are of them.”
Today’s Puzzler: Answer + Explanation:
Three
Here is the sentence with the missing semicolons restored:
Elena said the tasting would begin at noon; however, the winemaker was still in the cellar; meanwhile, the chef kept the flatbread warm; nevertheless, the first guests remained cheerful.
Each semicolon separates two complete, closely related thoughts. Because however, meanwhile and nevertheless connect independent clauses, each takes a semicolon before it and a comma after it.
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The views, opinions and data presented in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position or perspective of Napa Valley Features or its editorial team. Any content provided by our authors is their own and is not intended to malign any group, organization, company or individual.
As a certified grammar nerd, I love the semicolon challenge. Although it's technically correct to use semicolons as you have them in the second version, I'd never use four of them in the same sentence. I'd use a semicolon after "noon," and periods after "cellar" and "warm." The bits about the flatbread and the guests aren't closely related enough to warrant a semicolon.