A Haunting on the Hill

In Hand’s (Hokuloa Road) hair-raising tribute to Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, vacationing NYC playwright Holly Sherwin discovers an old Upstate New York mansion for rent and thinks it an ideal setting to put the final touches on her new play about Elizabeth Sawyer, a London woman hanged in 1621 for being a witch. With Holly is her songwriter girlfriend, Nisa Macari, who is adapting traditional murder ballads for the play; their friend Stevie, an actor and sound producer; and Amanda Greer, a successful but fading actress. Their initial readings of the play are thrilling, in a good way. But the knife-wielding neighbor, spooky voices, mysterious cold spots, and bloodstains—not so much. As if listeners won’t be creeped out enough by the story (delivered with a growing menace that narrator Carol Monda evokes with her low, throaty voice), subtle sound effects are worked into the production so listeners hear creaks, footsteps, and scratching along with the terrified characters.