'Angel Street' at Westminster Community Playhouse

OC Theatre Guild
2 days ago
5 min read

The original ‘Gaslight’ is a chilling tale of trust and terror

From Left: Micheal Corcoran, Jason Cook, Mikayla Acevedo and Amanda Dasilva. Photo courtesy of Yvonne Robertson

by Anne Reid

It begins, as the best thrillers often do, in the quiet comfort of a seemingly perfect home. The gas lamps flicker. The footsteps creak. A husband’s charm begins to curdle into menace. And somewhere above, in the attic of memory and guilt, lies a secret waiting to be unearthed.

This fall, Westminster Community Playhouse (WCP) invites audiences into the eerie elegance of “Angel Street.” Written by Patrick Hamilton, the play is a masterfully crafted psychological thriller set in late 19th-century Victorian London. Beneath its gaslit glow, it tells the story of Bella and Jack Manningham, an outwardly genteel couple whose lives unravel in the flickering shadow of manipulation, madness and murder.

At first glance, Mr. Manningham appears to be the picture of refinement. He’s handsome, attentive and almost disarmingly kind. But as the hours pass and the lights dim, it becomes clear that his tenderness masks a darker intention. Slowly and methodically, he begins to convince his wife, Bella, that she is losing her mind. Objects vanish. Lights dim and footsteps echo from the sealed upper floor. Every time she questions what’s happening, he turns it back on her with devastating precision.

From Left: Amanda DaSilva, Jason Cook and Mikayla Acevedo. Photo courtesy of Yvonne Robertson.

Into this domestic nightmare steps Inspector Rough, a gruff but warmhearted detective from Scotland Yard who suspects Mr. Manningham is not merely cruel but a murderer at the center of a horrifying crime committed in the Manningham home fifteen years before. As Rough restores Bella’s faith in her own sanity, the play races toward one of the most tightly wound climaxes in modern theater. It’s a battle not only of wits but of will and survival.

Though “Angel Street” first premiered in 1938 (and later became famous as “Gaslight,” inspiring the very term “gaslighting”), its themes could not feel more current. The play’s power lies in how chillingly it captures the emotional erosion that can occur behind closed doors, in the way a lie, repeated with conviction, can make even the most grounded person doubt their own mind.

“‘Angel Street’ is a study of manipulation through the eyes of Bella Manningham,” says producer Maria O’Connor. “She seeks love and acceptance from her husband but can’t see that he’s driving her out of her mind to get at the famous Barlow jewels hidden somewhere in the house. Detective Rough knows there’s a secret within these walls, and he realizes Bella is the key to unlocking it, but first he must convince her she isn’t mad.”

Maria O’Connor. Photo courtesy of Yvonne Robertson.

O’Connor, a longtime board member at WCP, has built a reputation for bringing dynamic, thoughtfully produced shows to the stage. Beyond her work as producer, she co-directs and runs the theater’s youth program, chairs the director selection committee, and has appeared in countless productions across Southern California. With her background in fashion production and her eye for period detail, O’Connor brings an acute sense of visual authenticity to “Angel Street’s” world of corseted suspense and candlelit deception.

That sense of authenticity is shared and elevated by director Yvonne Robertson, whose long friendship and creative collaboration with O’Connor stretches back nearly thirty years. “Yvonne is a fantastic, well-rounded and deeply accomplished actress,” O’Connor says. “I’ve seen her dedication to the craft firsthand. She’s an expert in English Victorian culture and we’re so lucky to have her guiding this production. She’s been working closely with the actors to bring that specific period tone to life, including the etiquette, emotional restraint and the sense of what could and couldn’t be spoken in polite society.”

“Maria asked me to take a look at the new season lineup, and I immediately volunteered to direct ‘Angel Street.’ I even built a little model with costumes and set pieces to show my vision – I was lucky to be selected,” Robertson says. “The Victorian age is my favorite genre. I love the atmosphere: the lamps, the lace, the mystery. I’ve lived in Long Beach since 1965, but I’m originally from London, so this world feels like home to me.”

From Left: Jason Cook, Michael Corcoran and Mikayla Acevedo. Photo courtesy of Yvonne Robertson.

Under Robertson’s direction, the play’s atmosphere takes on a tactile richness. “The set is wonderful, and the lighting and effects are a step above what audiences usually see in community theater,” she says. “We wanted – and succeeded – in capturing that dim, flickering glow of gas sconces. Every time the lights go down, you know something is happening somewhere else in the house.”

The house on “Angel Street” feels like a living character, its rooms heavy with history, its flickering lamps casting long shadows of doubt. The production leans into that gothic tension, blending elegance and unease. “It’s the perfect classic thriller for our fall slot,” O’Connor notes. “The setting is a gloomy old mansion where the lights mysteriously dim and sounds from the top floor can’t be explained. It’s a game of cat and mouse that keeps audiences on edge from start to finish.”

What gives “Angel Street” its enduring appeal, beyond its mystery and period charm, is how it reveals the psychological architecture of control. Long before the word “gaslighting” entered the modern lexicon, Hamilton understood the terrifying simplicity of how love can be weaponized and how truth can be dimmed just enough to make someone lose their sense of self. In today’s world, where emotional manipulation is recognized as a form of abuse, “Angel Street” feels less like an artifact of its time and more like a mirror held up to ours.

For WCP, that resonance is exactly the point. The theater has long championed works that combine classic storytelling with contemporary relevance, offering audiences a space to reflect as well as be thrilled. “This play has everything,” O’Connor says. “It’s suspenseful, it’s intelligent and it makes you think about how people use power, whether through words, love or fear.”

As the lights dim in the theater and the gas lamps flicker to life, audiences will step into Bella’s world of lace and secrets, where every whisper might be a clue and every shadow a threat. Whether you come for the mystery, the drama or the sheer craft of its performances, “Angel Street” promises a night that will keep you guessing long after the curtain falls.