The Hayes Theatre Co has established itself as a vital part of Sydney’s musical theatre ecosystem, with directors and designers finding fresh, inventive ways to stage shows in the intimate venue.

In 2019, Kate Gaul directed a reimagined, gender-bending take on Gilbert & Sullivan’s operetta H.M.S. Pinafore, but The Turn of the Screw marks the first time the Hayes has presented an opera.

Director and producer Craig Baldwin suggested the idea – and The Turn of the Screw was the perfect piece to choose.

Addy Robertson, Kanen Breen and Francis Greep in The Turn of the Screw at the Hayes Theatre Co. Photo © Richard Farland

Based on Henry James’ Victorian Gothic novella, the chamber opera by Benjamin Britten and Myfanwy Piper features just six singers, and it’s sung in English.

In the spine-chilling story, a young, inexperienced governess agrees to go to an isolated English country manor to look after two orphaned children, Miles and Flora. But she has to promise not to make any contact with their guardian.

The children seem to have a mysterious connection with Peter Quint, a former valet, and Miss Jessel, the previous...