If you’ve ever wondered about the origin of the term “gaslighting,” just brush up on your theater history.
You’ll find that “gaslight” comes from a 1938 thriller by British playwright Patrick Hamilton called “Gas Light” and later, “Angel Street.” In that play, a husband in Victorian London tries to convince his wife that she is mad so he can steal from her.
The play was later adapted into a screenplay for the 1944 film “Gaslight” that starred Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer.
In both tales, a male figure emerges to convince the wife that she’s being psychologically manipulated, or gaslighted. But in “Deceived,” a new stage adaptation by Canadian writers Johnna Wright and Patty Jamieson that begins performances Saturday in the Old Globe’s Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, wife Bella Manningham is no dupe, and she’s not weak.
Johnna Wright is the co-writer of “Deceived, Based on the Play Gaslight” at the Old Globe. (the Old Globe)
“It’s important to concentrate on how she got to the place she is when the audience sees her,” said Brittany Bellizeare, who’s portraying Bella at the Globe. “Strong is one of her characteristics and she has a lot more to offer. She’s not a victim. You get to see her discover her conviction, and it’s a beautiful thing to watch.”
“Deceived” made its premiere in 2022 in Ontario, Canada, under the name “Gaslight.” Now making it’s West Coast premiere at the Globe, it’s being presented under the title “Deceived, Based on the Play Gaslight.”
The Globe production is being directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, who calls this version of the story a “more rewarding” telling from a woman’s perspective. She recalled then-presidential candidate Donald Trump promising on his 2024 campaign trail that he would “protect” women.
Patty Jamieson is the co-writer of “Deceived, Based on the Play Gaslight” at the Old Globe. (the Old Globe)
“This idea that I even need protection, whether I ask for it or not, is one of the things that drew me to the play,” Turner Sonnenberg said. “This idea that women need protecting.”
“Deceived,” like playwright Hamilton’s “Gas Light,” is set in the Victorian period, though in 1901 instead of 1880.
“My main job is to make it relevant to the audience that will see it here,” said Turner Sonnenberg. “I did a lot of research about that time. The production will feel Victorian but because this is an adaptation I’m trying to draw parallels between then and now, parallels that are timeless regardless of the time period. Like finding your own agency is universal.”
Bellizeare is joined in the “Deceived” cast by Travis Van Winkle as Jack Manningham, and by Maggie Carney (Backyard Renaissance’s “Misery” last year) and Kennedy Tolson, recently in the ensemble of La Jolla Playhouse’s world premiere play “Indian Princesses.”
Both Bellizeare and her director are looking forward to staging “Deceived” in the round.
“It’s very interesting to do a play when there are audience members 360 around you,” Bellizeare said. “They’re immersed in our world, almost part of our home.”
Stage director Delicia Turner Sonnenberg. (The Old Globe)
Turner Sonnenberg said the theater space will enhance the audience’s sense of isolation in the Manningham house. “With the audience all around,” she said, “we can get a feel for the pressure that these characters are under.”
From a technical standpoint, “The round is very different than the Globe Theatre, which is a proscenium,” said Turner Sonnenberg, who previously directed Dominique Morisseau’s “Skeleton Crew” in the White in 2017. (She directed Alice Childress’ “Trouble in Mind” in the Globe Theatre in 2022.) “So I’m thinking about movement and how the costumes function and the way that time changes affect costume changes.”
While “Deceived” is Turner Sonnenberg’s third directorial project at the Old Globe, Bellizeare is making her debut there.
“I worked with (Globe artistic director) Barry Edelstein when he was at the Public Theater in New York years ago,” she said. “It’s cool to come to the Old Globe and see him now. It’s a full-circle moment for me.”
Bellizeare has been piling up the memorable moments the past couple of years, having played a high school basketball player at Lincoln Center Theater in a production of Candrice Jones’ “Flex” in 2023.
“It was a fun, exhilarating and anxiety-ridden performance because we were actually playing basketball and shooting baskets onstage; there were alternate lines for when we made the basket and when we didn’t.”
She also made her Broadway debut last year in playwright Ayad Akhtar’s “McNeal” starring Robert Downey Jr.
“I was working with a movie star,” said Bellizeare, who played a journalist who interviews Downey’s Nobel Prize-winning writer, “the crème de la crème of the industry. My jaw dropped every single time. I loved my character. It was such a blessing to work with the talent that I got to work with.”
Her roles in these productions make her well-suited to play Bella in “Deceived.”
“I’m intrigued,” she said, “by female characters who exude strength. Oftentimes Black women get characterized stereotypically, and I love playing roles that smash those stereotypes.”
Turner Sonnenberg, who is working with Bellizeare for the first time, praised the actor’s “ability to be both vulnerable and strong. She’s tremendous. It’s a great cast, all four of them.”
This is also the first time Turner Sonnenberg can recall directing a psychological thriller, though she just directed her first murder mystery, Rachel Wagstaff’s adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple tale “The Mirror Crack’d,” at the Alley Theatre in Houston. That production opened the day after she began rehearsals for “Deceived” in Balboa Park.
“This is my summer of mysteries,” Turner Sonnenberg said. “First a whodunit, now a psychological thriller. I’m having a great time.”
‘Deceived’
When: Previews, Aug. 9 through 13. Opens Aug. 14 and runs through Sept. 7. 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays
Where: Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, The Old Globe, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park, San Diego
Tickets: $47 and up
Phone: 619-234-5623
Online: theoldglobe.org