Another Twist

Playwright Tim Luscombe tells Duncan Hall about the challenges of bringing Rye novelist Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw to the stage

At first it was difficult to figure out how to adapt Henry James’ novel. His writing is so dense in its detail – many times I had to go back over a sentence to see what it meant. I have done a lot of Jane Austen adaptations which present their own challenges, but they were easy compared to James.

When he moved to Rye [where he wrote The Turn of the Screw] James needed to make some money. He had been through a disaster on the West End. As a playwright he was down on his uppers. He wrote The Turn of the Screw in 12 weekly parts. He knew these sort of stories worked.