Beginning Jan. 8, CA's Marin Theatre Company will be filled with ghosties and evil spirits when Jeffrey Hatcher's adaptation of The Turn Of The Screw takes the stage. Jenny Lord plays a tormented, haunted governess; Darren Bridgett takes all the other roles, male and female. Lee Sanowich directs this adaptation of Henry James' novella, about a governess caring for two children in a lonely English manor. Soon they're haunted by the spirit of the previous caretaker, who was no Mary Poppins. Seduced by her valet, she drowned herself, an event followed shortly by his own death mysterious death.

Hatcher's other works include Three Viewings, Smash, about a millionaire socialist leaving his newlywed bride to start a revolution at a ladies' college, and Scotland Road. James' prose works include Daisy Miller: A Study and Washington Square, which was adapted by the Goetz's into The Heiress.

For tickts ($10-$36) and information on The Turn Of The Screw at Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Ave., call (415) 388-5208.

-- By David Lefkowitz