The Turn of the Screw review – Henry James’s classic ghost story with added jump scares

Arcola theatre, London
The slick production and sound design of Morgan Lloyd Malcolm and Nicky Allpress’s adaptation is hampered by its own cleverness

Here is Henry James’s canonical ghost story with modern-day jump scares. And, more audaciously, a new framing device by writer-adapter, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, which explains itself in a final, added, twist.

The jump scares do their work, Hattie North’s jagged sound design enacting its shocks, and the production is slick and stylised – but not all the elements pay off.

At Arcola theatre until 10 October