★★★★★
It is said that the Winchester Mystery House is one of the most haunted places in America. With its peculiar design and spooky legends surrounding its widowed owner, the house continues to attract thousands of visitors every year. However, beneath this haunting exterior lies an incredibly moving story. Not only did her architectural ventures showcase artistic triumph in the face of gender restrictions, but they also mirror her attempts to rebuild her life following the untimely deaths of her husband and daughter.
The Winchester story has been widely embellished over the years to satisfy lovers of all things supernatural. With guided tours, gift shops, and even a café, tourists keep coming back. US writer Wendy Weiner takes us on her own guided tour of the infamous Winchester residence in her new play Mystery House which recounts Sarah Winchester’s backstory and the ghostly horrors and battle with grief which began to plague her life.
Wendy gives an engaging overview, detailing how by building a labyrinthine house—with stairs that lead to nowhere and a séance room—Sarah hoped this would ward off these spirits that she believed haunted her. Accompanied by photographs of these structural oddities, we’re immersed in the realm of spiritualism. However, we’re firmly brought back to reality when Wendy begins to digress more and more into her own personal life. Her grief becomes entwined with Sarah’s as she describes her father’s battle with cancer and how her family dealt with this hardship.
As she delves further into her own personal struggles, the genre gradually shifts from an embellished paranormal mystery to a sincere portrait of the human experience. This new-found emotional weight to the play is heightened further when Weiner brings Mary Todd Lincoln’s tragic story into the equation. In many ways, one story parallels the other. The deaths of Mrs Lincoln’s family members spurred a period of “uncontrollable mourning” which preposterously led to her being deemed insane. Sarah also gained the reputation of being driven mad by the premature death of her husband and daughter, spurring her numerous eccentric renovations. Yet this pervasive stigma is not confined to the oppressive patriarchy of 19th century America: it still very much persists to this day as Wendy confides that she tried to conceal her grief when dealing with the loss of her father.
As can be ascertained from this in-depth outline, this play is a complex, creative, and compelling exploration of bereavement. Wendy subtly undermines the human fascination with hauntings in order to effectively articulate the protracted agony of those in mourning. Just as the stories of Sarah Winchester and Mrs Lincoln were distorted, this play undergoes a similar transformation as our expected venture into the world of spirits becomes a powerful analogy for the bereaved. A ghost is a spirit who can’t move on—but grief is a real person whose life can’t move on.
Wendy’s play interweaves fact, fiction, and personal experience into a moving tribute to a woman whose artistic achievements have been eclipsed by the chauvinistic and pejorative attitudes of her time. Sarah Winchester’s artistic talent and demonstration of strength in how she coped with a family passing is a clear mirror to the author’s own inspirational journey with death.
With careful pacing, a captivating and intimate performance, and a genuine heart to the script, Mystery House gives us an innovative and refreshing take on your typical ghost story, offering an authentic insight into the painful reality of death.
Mystery House will be performed at Gilded Balloon Teviot – Turret on 13-28 August (not 14, 21) at 12:20pm as part of Edinburgh Fringe.
Words by Katie Heyes
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