For those unfamiliar with Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s classic short story of 1892, The Yellow Wallpaper details how a new mother’s treatment for an unspecified ‘nervous condition’ by her doctor-husband in fact leads to a dramatic worsening of her precarious mental state. As the weeks pass, the jaundiced décor of the old nursery in which she is confined begins to have an ever more oppressive effect on her psyche, ultimately resulting in a complete retreat into paranoid fantasy.

It is still an incredibly powerful work on many different levels, as this impressive new dramatization, directed by Aoife Spillane-Hinks, serves to remind us. In the role of the narrator, Maeve Fitzgerald channels the original text into a stunningly intense and nuanced solo performance. Fresh layers of horror are piled atop Gilman’s already sinister imagery, as a frail but coherent and jocular young woman is gradually transformed by her inner demons into a delusional wretch, circling manically around her room on all fours.

In what proves to be a masterstroke of economic design (Alyson Cummins), the audience are positioned so as to be able to view the stage from multiple levels on three sides; peering in on the patient like Victorian visitors to Bedlam, or worse, embodying a ghostly presence within the dreaded wallpaper itself. The effect is deeply provocative considering what comes to pass, and combined with a subtle progression of lighting states (Sarah Jane Shiels) and a haunting score (Denis Clohessy), ensures that this is a production that demands both attention and respect.

Tom Donegan