The ghost of Blackstoke Manor

The most important thing about any Mystery play is to keep the audience guessing until the very end and this production does just that. The script was well written by the director Jo and the company made the most of it. Four people break into an empty house full of cobwebs and dust sheets and within a short space of time doors open and slam by themselves and pictures fall off the walls. When a stranger joins them saying he lives just down the road views are divided. Is this old property haunted or is the stranger about to kill one of them or someone in the past. The pace was a little slow in places in act one but it was essential for us, the audience, to understand the characteristics and frailties of the two couples, which meant some rather laboured dialogue in the first half. Of course, that is down to the author and the cast did move it along as best they could. The standing set was beautifully built with all the disarray and cobwebs appropriate for a house left empty for a great number of years. The costumes were in keeping with the play but the lighting failed to enhance the feelings of ghostliness, bad weather and evening coming on. Despite not using mics, we heard every word of the dialogue thanks to the surprisingly good acoustics of the venue and the ability of the cast. Phil Salter gave his usual excellent performance as Will showing all the signs of a rather down-trodden spouse and Carli Last, his wife Tina, obviously wore the trousers in their home. Luke Charles played her younger brother whose idea of fun was to play tricks on the unsuspecting. He showed many different facets of his rather complex personality and Sarah Johnson, his totally stressed wife Fiona, made masterful use of pauses. Raymond Tongue was everything a creepy stranger should be. Between them all they made full use of the comedy lines, sound effects and dramatic reactions including some very explicit screams. Sadly the hall was not quite full but the audience were very appreciative of the production. Another good show, thank you.

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