By Kristen Nevarez Schweizer
September 5, 2025
The Old Globe’s Deceived—the West Coast premiere of Johnna Wright and Patty Jamieson’s adaptation of Patrick Hamilton’s Gaslight, directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg—is an electrifying psychological thriller. And to prove its popularity, the show has already been extended.
Warning: this review contains spoilers. I rarely reveal endings in my articles, but I attended a matinee, which means I was surrounded by a house full of seasoned theatergoers and retirees with Globe subscriptions going back to the Reagan era—the kind of people who probably saw the 1944 Ingrid Bergman movie in theaters. And let me tell you: these guys did not care if they gave away the twist.
For context: Gaslight started as a 1938 play by Hamilton, became a 1940 British film, and then blew up as a Hollywood film in 1944, starring Ingrid Bergman. All of that happened decades before the term gaslighting became the pop-psych buzzword of the 2010s. Now, in 2025, the term is everywhere—politics, therapy sessions, Twitter clapbacks—and the Old Globe has pulled its origin story back into the spotlight with an adaptation that strips out the damsel in distress trope and lets Bella, the gaslit wife, drive her own narrative.
Because (spoilers): that no-good husband is an emotionally manipulative liar.
In this modern take, the wife, Bella (played by Brittany Bellizeare), is no longer the passive victim who waits for a detective to swoop in and explain her husband’s sinister plot. Instead, Bella puts the pieces together, makes choices, and reclaims her sense of reality.
The feminist remix keeps its period style with stunning period costumes and set pieces. while speaking in modern language. Sonnenberg’s direction leans into the claustrophobia of the era—dimming gaslights, a tight room, a sense that Bella might be ‘put away’ for losing her grip—but it’s never dour. Her use of theatre-in-the-round staging to witness the audience’s unsubtle, no-chill reactions made this show for me.
Because there is something meta about watching a play called Deceived while surrounded by rows of viewers wearing complicit smiles. The first time the husband, Jack (portrayed with unnerving composure by Travis Van Winkle), lied—“You’re imagining things, darling”—the room chuckled. By the end, these chuckles grew to full-body, we-already-know laughs. It was basically The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but for vintage psychological thrillers.
At the same time, my (gorgeous, non-gaslighty, millenial) husband didn’t know why the audience was giggling like middle-schoolers. His gaze darted from the staged living room to the active arena around it, confused why they giggled. He rode the thriller as intended—attentively leaning forward and waiting for the twist.
Sitting between those two energies was like getting caught in the crossfade—some watching for lightning, the others listening for thunder. The tension wasn’t just happening onstage but bouncing around the room. And that’s why live theater slaps better than streaming. You’d watch silently at home, maybe yell at the screen once. At the theater you’re breathing the same air as the actors and the audience who bring their memories, histories, and weird laughs into the room, too.
Since the term “gaslighting” has been meme-ified into oblivion, seeing its source material treated with reverence and reinvention is oddly grounding. Deceived isn’t just a period thriller dusted off for nostalgia. It’s a cultural mirror, polished for now, reflecting how we talk about power, denial, and manipulation. And seeing it in a room where some people know the end and others gasp at the turn—that’s the theater high that never gets old.
DECEIVED
August 9 – September 14, 2025
(Opening night: Thursday, August 14)
Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre
Conrad Prebys Theatre Center
West Coast premiere
By Johnna Wright and Patty Jamieson
Adapted from Gaslight by Patrick Hamilton
Directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg
PS. Because Hamilton died in 1962, U.S. copyright law (Life + 70) prevents the use of the title Gaslight until 2032. Canada, however, with its Life + 50 rule, is already able to stage titled works—in fact, Wright and Jamieson’s adaptation, originally produced at Canada’s Shaw Festival in 2022 under the name Gaslight, had to be renamed Deceived in San Diego purely due to copyright hurdles. And I’m kind of glad, because when the gaslight clue is revealed at the end, it’s an Easter egg for (the few) who didn’t know what was about to happen.
