The Turn of the Screw is presented at McCaw Hall Oct. 13-27. Credit: Carolyn Arcabascio

The Turn of the Screw is presented at McCaw Hall Oct. 13-27.

The Turn of the Screw is presented at McCaw Hall Oct. 13-27. Carolyn Arcabascio

The Turn of the Screw has ghosts. The first one appears not long after the new governess has settled in and begun teaching the beautiful and perfect orphans.

She is taking an afternoon stroll. Nature is vibrating. The governess—who has been hired by the children’s uncle after their parents’ death—sees a strange man on a tower. The man looks straight at her. She immediately senses that something is not right about him.

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...