When her husband, Jack, leaves her every night, Bella starts hearing strange noises coming from the attic.
A loud thud followed by thumping, like heavy footsteps.
The lights dim in the downstairs sitting room, which leans almost cartoonishly inward, as if it’s bending from the weight of its beams.
Jack assures his young bride that it’s all in her head, part of a growing pattern of missteps like losing her mother’s pearls, misplacing the grocery bill and hiding the painting of the home’s previous owner, who had met a violent death in the home before Jack and Bella moved in.
It didn’t take long for the audience at Arizona Theatre Company‘s opening night of “Deceived” to start putting together the pieces.
But it’s a safe bet not many of us loosely filling the Temple of Music and Art Thursday night had that plot twist on our bingo cards.
ATC opens its 58th season with the play, an adaptation of the 1939 play “Gas Light,” about a man who tries to convince his wife she is slowly losing her mind. The show continues through Oct. 18.
Thursday’s audience kinda figured Jack, played by Tony Roach with a delicious mix of smarmy and cruelty, was behind the trickery. But we figured it was because he might have been cheating with the young maid, Nancy (Sarah-Anne Martinez).
But the genius of “Deceived” lies in Jack’s motivation. Surely he would not go to such great lengths to convince Bella (Laakan McHardy) that she was losing her mind and might have to be institutionalized like her mother just to cover up his infidelities.
Bella might not trust herself when it comes to her memory, but she trusts the memory of her housekeeper, Elizabeth (Amelia White).
It’s Elizabeth who reveals the biggest clues through the smallest details. She confides in Bella about the night her former employer, Alice Barlow, was killed by a robber looking for her valuable ruby necklace in the Victorian London townhouse.
The necklace was never put in the safe that the robber broke into nor was it ever recovered.
When she breaks open her husband’s desk and finds her pearls, you could see a light go off in Bella; she knew her husband was playing her, but she didn’t know why.
We won’t give away any more details, but suffice it to say, the ending prompted a flood of applause; if only every gaslighting story ended with karma this sweet.
Director Jenn Thompson made sure that the audience sympathized with McHardy’s Bella but never felt sorry for her while allowing us glimpses of Jack’s evil streak with just enough empathy to make us question his intentions.
McHardy’s Bella mined the depths of growing instability with a balance of vulnerability and skepticism. She never let us fully believe Jack’s conclusion that her character was slipping into the abyss of madness, which explains the loud applause at the ending. We were quietly cursing Jack’s cruelty throughout, so when McHardy’s Bella rose to the challenge, it almost felt personal.
White’s Elizabeth infused snarky humor into some of the play’s darkest moments, including reprimanding the younger maid Nancy when she refused to follow the rules.
Martinez’s Nancy had the attitude of Snooki from “Jersey Shore” with flashes of Eliza Doolittle, the street corner flower girl trying to convince us she wasn’t a con artist.
Thompson’s vision for “Deceived” was brought to life in the sets by Alexander Dodge, including the leaning wall and Philip Rosenberg’s lighting effects that included flickering gas lights and illuminating the translucent parlor ceiling so that we could see characters climbing the stairs into the attic.
Performances continue through Oct. 18 at the Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave. For showtimes and tickets, visit atc.org.
