Gaslight

photo: Carol Rosegg

Even if you don't know the story and you've never seen the Charles Boyer-Ingrid Bergman movie, Irish Rep's production of Gaslight is low on suspense and mystery, mainly because it doesn't exploit the room in the play to keep us guessing. From the very first scene, everything is telegraphed and painfully obvious: when the villain needlessly starts off figuratively twirling a moustache, our journey's been narrowed. In a good production, the play's final scene - in which our heroine scrambles for a razor - should have us on the edge of our seats wondering what she's going to do with it. In this production, there's no doubt at all.