Gas Light

Gas Light (known in the United States as Angel Street) is a 1938 play by the British dramatist Patrick Hamilton. The play (and its film adaptations) gave rise to the term gaslighting with the meaning "a form of psychological abuse in which false information is presented to the victim with the intent of making him/her doubt his/her own memory and perception".

The play is set in fog-bound London in 1880 at the upper middle class home of Jack Manningham and his wife Bella. It is late afternoon, a time which Hamilton notes as being the time "before the feeble dawn of gaslight and tea".

At the opening of the drama Bella is clearly on edge, and the stern reproaches from her overbearing husband (who flirts with the servants) makes matters worse. What most perturbs Bella is Jack's unexplained disappearances from the house: he will not tell her where he is going, and this increases her anxiety. As the drama unfolds, it becomes clear that Jack is intent on convincing Bella that she is going insane, even to the point of assuring her she is "imagining" the gas light in the house is dimming.

The appearance of a police detective called Rough soon leads Bella to realise that Jack is responsible for her torment. Rough explains that the apartment above was once occupied by one Alice Barlow, a wealthy woman who was murdered for her jewels but that the murderer never uncovered them.

In fact, Jack goes to the flat each night to search for the jewels, and illuminating the gaslights in it causes the lights to dim in the rest of the building. His footsteps in what is supposed to be an empty apartment are used to make Bella believe that she is hearing things. Rough convinces Bella to assist him in exposing Jack as the murderer, which she does, but not before she takes revenge on Jack by pretending to help him escape. At the last minute she reminds him that, having gone insane, she is not accountable for her actions. The play closes with Jack Manningham being led away by the police.

The play, titled Gas Light, premiered in London in December 1938 and ran for six months. It premiered on the West End at the Apollo Theatre.

Angel Street (United States title) premiered on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre on 5 December 1941, transferred to the Bijou Theatre on 2 October 1944, and closed on 30 December 1944 after 1295 performances. Directed by Shepard Traube, the cast featured Leo G. Carroll (Rough), Florence Edney (Elizabeth), Elizabeth Eustis (Nancy), Judith Evelyn (Mrs. Manningham) and Vincent Price (Mr. Manningham).

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