WARNING: Spoilers for the show if you haven't seen it yet!
One of the themes in Whisper House is touch- human contact and connection, or the lack thereof. The stage directions make a big deal out of moments of physical contact between certain characters. For instance, in an early scene in which Yasuhiro and Lily are making tea, there is a moment where he almost might touch her to comfort her, and instead thinks better of it. In another scene in which Lily and Christopher are struggling to connect emotionally at the breakfast table, Lily tries to take Christopher's hand and Christopher sharply withdraws from her physically. The first time that Yasuhiro and Lily touch meaningfully is when she is cleaning his shirt near the end of the play, at the same time that the Ghosts sing about feeling "the touch of one you love..." I and our choreographer Derek thought this theme was important enough that we also incorporated it heavily into our portrayal of the two Ghost characters as well. Did you notice?
For the entirety of the play until the very final book scene, the two Ghosts (who were unexpressed lovers in life) never touch each other.
In our particular version of 'ghost rules' that we set for the show, part of their eternal punishment is that they actually aren't able to physically come into contact with each other. They can come very close to each other, even within inches, but are never able to connect directly, Instead, they either can use fabric (most frequently the male ghost's dress scarf) or manipulate the living in tandem. The touches that the living in the show are taking for granted are permanently denied the spirit characters.
This was my way in to figuring out the ghost characters' motivations. In his ghost story about the fate of the Solomon Snell yacht, Sheriff Charles opines that they simply want revenge on the living- to take lives as vengeance for the full lives filled with love and happiness that they never got. Fair enough, I suppose. But I was curious what other "why" they might have- what other goals- if we don't take Charles' statement at face value. After all, he's wrong about plenty of other things- why should we take his word for what's going on with the ghosts?
My theory for this production is that the ghosts are looking for freedom- both to touch each other, and to move on to the afterlife. But they are wrong about what is needed for them to be free. They think (like the ghost story Charles tells) that in order to end their ghostly state they need to take someone else's life, and that's why they are trying to nudge Christopher towards despair and suicide. My opinion for this rendition of the show: they are actually pinned in place by secrets, as punishment for the secret they kept (never declaring their love). And it's the speaking of secrets by the living that actually sets them free, unbeknownst to the Ghosts until their plot to drown Christopher fails.
Lily to Christopher in the final scene, just before the Ghosts exit the story:
"I'm going to tell you something that no one else living knows..."
The lighthouse is the titular Whisper House because it is filled with secrets and unexpressed feelings: Lily and Yasuhiro's feelings for each other, Charles' feelings for Lily, the truth about the wreck of the Solomon Snell, and on and on. The way to break the spell in our production is honest connection.