Ghost Stories

Ghost Nights was part of an evening with two one act plays.

It was insightful watching how Sadleir Drama Club create their stage in Standon Village Hall, it is a very
clever use of the hall, and a lot of thought has been put into how the drama club can perform there.
Ghost Nights is a one act play where seven women gather in a haunted house, awaiting the arrival of a
psychic.

Seven ladies take centre stage in this one act play with Malcolm (Matt Rosser) the partner of Wendy (Elaine
Miller) being the only man in the play. With only half an hour to tell this story having seven ladies on stage
was always going to be a challenge for the characters to be developed properly, this is not the director or
the actresses’ fault, as they are performing the play as written, however there was some lovely moments
where the characters felt more developed.

Bella played by Mary Moroney stood out for the right reasons, comic timing at its vert best, she delivered
every line with such timing she did not fail to get a laugh from the audience. Comedy is one of the hardest
things to do, to do it in this way in such a short space time is a credit to Mary, well done.
Charley played by Doreen Nicolson came on as a force of nature, she had energy that at times was
potentially missing, she increased the pace nicely.

Maggie Stainton played Consuela, she had some lovely lines, however at times she needed to project a
little more, this is always difficult when not using a microphone, and in this venue microphones would not
have been appropriate.

Nadia was on stage very little, and Claire Beechey did her best to develop a character, however I
appreciate how difficult this was within the confine of the script. Wendy played by Elaine Miller was the one
character, who had an interesting back story, this did come across, however I do feel there was space for
more development, again though I appreciate you can only do so much with the script.

Jane Goldstraw played Madge who was eager to meet the psychic, this eagerness come across as making
the character seem anxious and nervous. Penny Wheadon did something very difficult, but she did it well,
and that was to give Vera a beautiful Scottish accent, I am not always the biggest fan of accents as it can
make diction poor, but that was not the case.

I really liked the minimalist set, it did create an atmosphere, especially, the dolls at the back, very creepy!
The working door was hung incredibly well in a very difficult space. And I understand why it was best to
have an open stage, with seven characters on at the same time, space was minimal. There was limited
blocking, which in this set of circumstances is a tribute to director and cast, as I am sure there were times
on stage the actors made sure they were not blocking or masking, it helped that the stage was open with no
set in the way.

Thank you to Liz and the front of house team for their hospitality and the fish and chips were delicious.

Scott Welch
District 9
NODA East
© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.