The late great star of the stage, Katharine Cornell, who lies buried behind the theatre she bequeathed to the town of Tisbury, would approve of the choice of The Turn of the Screw for the Island Theatre Workshop’s Halloween presentation.

The novella, written by Henry James and published in 1898, is arguably the most riveting tale ever told, and certainly the scariest ghost story. Mr. James disliked the screamer-style ghost story. Instead he set out to create a drama of intensifying psychological suspense through plot twists akin to the medieval torture device of metal bands tightening around fingers. The reader is held in morbid thrall, breath coming in spasms, sounds from the corridor perhaps causing audible gasps. The shocking ending is caused not by catharsis, but through increasingly torturous attempts to figure out what happened.

Critics and readers alike have been mulling this over for over one hundred years.

Actor, playwright and director Taffy McCarthy has taken the stage adaptation of The Turn of the Screw by Jeffrey Hatcher and turned it into a brilliant evening. Actor Chelsea McCarthy, gorgeous in Victorian garb of a high-necked ruffled white blouse, a black velvet jacket and a long black satin skirt, wears her red hair pulled back and tumbling to her waist. Ms. McCarthy brings a stunning focus to her role as an unnamed governess assigned to manage a mansion in Essex County along with a ten-year-old boy, Milo (played by adult Chris Roberts), just expelled from boarding school, and his silent, eight-year-old sister, Flora (beheld by the governess as an unseen presence).

The heroine’s only companion is the stalwart housekeeper Mrs. Grose (Lee Fierro). The dual roles of narrator and the children’s callous uncle is played by Don Lyons who, with his trim grey beard and sepulchral voice, drops easily into Victorian gear.

The novella gains much of its force by activating the imagination of the reader. We picture the “lovely, lovely” children, their angelic nature and exquisite beauty perhaps twisted by the dark machinations of their previous, deceased governess and her lover, the depraved Peter Quint. And the ghosts of these same mentors, glimpsed only by the present governess, also play a part in the reader’s inflamed dreamscape. What is real, what is the product of a diseased mind, what is good, what is bad, what is up and what is down is all part and parcel of the author’s brilliant literary torture chamber.

What appears on the stage is different from what is presented on the page, as it must be. In original versions of the play, the governess stands alone with occasional input from a narrator reading all the other roles. Director Taffy McCarthy’s choice of giving voice to these several parts gives a concreteness to the characters but does not undercut the sense of unease and imaginative terror of the story. Ms. McCarthy directs with verve and the kind of keen intelligence that does The Master (aka Henry James) proud. Lights and costumes are by Kevin Ryan. The royal blue drapes of the theatre create a perfect backdrop for a yellow Victorian settee, Ms. Chelsea’s pale and determined face, and the cameo brooch at her neck. Mr. Ryan, a tenor soloist who has starred in numerous musicals with ITW, is also superb in his acting role, and Ms. Fierro, a featured player in the movie Jaws, and director of many ITW presentations herself, strikes just the right note for the character of Mrs. Grose.

The show began last weekend and plays again tonight through Sunday. Friday and Saturday shows begin at 8 p.m. and the Sunday matinee starts at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15 (two for $25) at the door.

The play is a must-see. And afterwards, especially at the evening performances, take a small flashlight and head to the left side of the grand old theatre to pay a visit to Ms. Cornell’s grave with its white marble disk and white marble bench. Thank her out loud because she’s sure to be listening.