The Patrick Hamilton Appreciation Society discussion

"The Governess" is a lost play by Patrick Hamilton, featuring his detective Rough who first appeared in "Gas Light". It had a provincial tour in 1945 with Flora Robson, but never made it either into the West End or into print. In 2013 actor director Roy Marsden resuscitated the play in a production starring Jenny Seagrove and Peter Bowles. The text is published by Samuel French.
Like "Gas Light" it is a claustrophobic Victorian thriller, based distantly on the Constance Kent murder case. It concerns a missing child, an unhappy family, and there are hints of all the typical Hamilton preoccupations of morbid sexuality, sadism and alcohol abuse. Like "The Man Upstairs" it starts strongly, with a growing sense of menace, but ends weakly and unconvincingly. J.R. Ackerley in "The Listener" called the original production "piffle", which is harsh, but the second act is certainly flimsy.
The text is published as " by Patrick Hamilton, adapted by Roy Marsden". Sadly there is no information as to how Mr. Marsden got hold of the lost text, or as to how radical the adaptation has been, but he must be thanked and congratulated for having made even an adapted version available after seventy years. Can we hope that someone will be able to do the same for Hamilton's two other lost stage plays, "John Brown's Body" and "The Procurator Of Judaea" and his missing radio play "Caller Anonymous"?

^ Thanks Andrew. Very interesting.

I see it's available on Amazon - anyone read it?