PATRICK Hamilton’s play, “Gaslight,” is, depending on your point of view, an old melodrama or a fine example of Victorian ‘noir’, and on Friday at Canberra REP’s Theatre 3, we can decide which it is.

Whatever the outcome, it’s something new to director Barb Barnett, who admitted to “CityNews” yesterday, “it’s a bit out of what I normally do.”

But of one thing she is certain – the play bears little resemblance to the very famous 1944 movie of the same name starring Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer, acting their socks off in mysterious non-British accents.

This is Barnett’s second directorial role with REP after a production of “Equus” last year, and she’s been delving into the varying forms of the text, including the 1940 British film version, directed by Thorold Dickinson and the 1961 novelisation by William Drummond – by now she knows all the differences.

For one thing, the stage play focuses on a single night in the dark Victorian mansion where heroine Bella and Manning (Kate Blackhurst) is made to think he’s going insane by her manipulative husband Jack (Peter Holland).

For another, despite the terrifying moments of psychological exploitation as he twists the psychological knife, there’s a great deal of wit in the original, as debonair Inspector Rough (Patrick Gallagher) gets to the bottom of a mystery that’s been festering for 20 years.

At the press call yesterday, while Barnett showed us the sympathetic housekeeper Elizabeth (Nikki-Lynne Hunter ) persuading her reluctant mistress to meet the inspector, set designer Ian Croker was on hand preparing to put the finishing touches to the rich furnishings.

One piece of information that has everyone intrigued is the news that this play gave rise to the term “gaslighting,” a form of mental abuse in which information is perverted with the intent of making the victim distrust his or her own perceptions.

With that in mind, it ought to be a thrill a minute.

“Gaslight” at Theatre 3, July 31 to August 15, bookings to canberrarep.org.au or 6257 1950.