Music/Theater

GOVERNESS AND HER CHARGE: Is the governess going mad? Is little Miles collaborating with fiendish ghosts in a sadistic plot? Heather May as the governess and Andy Linz as Miles (also a variety of other characters) light up Princeton Summer Theater’s production of Henry James’ “The Turn of the Screw,” adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher, at the Hamilton Murray Theater on the Princeton University campus through July 11.

What’s Going On Here? Insane Governess or Wicked Spirits? PST Stages Henry James’ Ghost Story, “The Turn of the Screw”

Donald Gilpin

A young Victorian lady, “romantic at heart,” travels to lonely Bly Manor in Essex to serve as governess for two recently orphaned children in Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw (1898), adapted for the stage (1996) by Jeffrey Hatcher and currently playing at Princeton Summer Theater. She soon begins to see ghosts of her predecessor Miss Jessel and the former master’s valet Peter Quint, both of whom died recently under mysterious circumstances. As she tells and performs her story of what James described as the “most infernal imaginable evil and danger,” the governess battles to protect her little charges from the fiendish ghosts. But are the ghosts really there or does the real terror in this story lurk in the governess’ sexually repressed, feverish imagination?

Trio of Sister Musicians Mesmerizes Audience; Plays Classical and Popular Styles in Concert

Nancy Plum

There was a time when classical music was in one corner and popular music in another, and audiences went to either one type of concert or the other. Somewhere along the way, classically-trained performers began delving into the increasingly varied realms of pop, jazz, bluegrass, and world music. One of the best representative of this crossover trend came to Richardson auditorium last Thursday night as the Ahn Trio, an ensemble of sisters who not only brought exceptional playing to the stage but also showed the nuances of a close-knit musical family.