THE TURN OF THE SCREW

Adapted from Henry James’s 1898 novella, The Turn of the Screw is an English-language chamber opera by Benjamin Britten. It follows a young governess who arrives at the country estate of Bly to care for two children, Miles and Flora. Convinced that the ghosts of a former valet and governess are exerting a sinister influence over them, she becomes increasingly determined to intervene, with tragic consequences. The opera explores innocence, obsession, and the uncertain boundary between protection and possession.

This production imagines Bly as an infinite loop—a space with no true center and no clear ending. Repeated window frames and triangular perspectives create shifting layers of interior, exterior, and the uncertain space in between. Light and shadow alternately conceal and reveal figures, transforming the house into a psychological landscape where every threshold opens onto another. Like the screw itself, the space seems capable of turning forever.

When every attempt to protect becomes another turn of the screw, where does care end and control begin?