The Ghost Train

 ‘The Ghost Train’ by Arnold Ridley, who you may know as the delightfully gentle Private Godfrey in the BBC comedy Dad’s Army. The play was a huge hit upon its premiere in 1923, enjoying a 17 month run in the West End. It would seem that The Ghost Train has lost none of its power to chill and delight audiences over the years, as it remains a popular choice for revivals, as well as being adapted for film, TV and the radio numerous times over the years. Ridley’s story about a group of stranded passengers was inspired by his own experience of a missed connection when he spent an uncomfortable night at Mangotsfield Junction, near Bristol and was awaken by a train screaming and tearing through the station.

The play is well cast, congratulations to Director Jen Henry for an accomplished production. Six fashionably dressed passengers, (praise for Liz Youster and the team) including  a pair of newlyweds (played by Andrew H Jolley & Tanya Wood), birdcage carrying spinster (Stephanie McGill) and bickering married couple (Richard Isles & Laura Smith ) were  forced to spend a night in the closed Fal-Vale station building in Cornwall after one of them, the irritating Bertie Wooster like buffoon, Teddie Deakin (played perfectly by Mark Prescott) pulled the communication chord to rescue his hat, blown from the carriage windows of their steam train. Teddie irritates them all by treating the whole thing as a big joke, his antics and inane laugh driving everyone crazy; Great performance Mark, well done. However all is not as it seems; to be revealed later.

 The bickering group soon discover that they have more to worry about than finding the way to pass the time. The eccentric Stationmaster Saul Hodgkin (beautifully played by Barry Prescott) tells them the legend of a ghost train that haunts the station, relating gruesome facts of the accident forty years ago, the six dead passengers, and the ghost of the train driver who walks the platform waving the red lamp. Anyone unlucky enough to experience sight of the Ghost train will die. The group dismiss this old man as a simple country bumpkin but a series of unsettling events cause the travellers to question their scepticism.

Nothing is what it seems in this twisty comedy thriller, as Ridley’s witty script delights in pulling the rug out from under the audience.

A disappearing dead body and the arrival of a hysterical deranged Julia Price and her brother (Vicky Lodge & Gareth Crawshaw) with an inept doctor (Steve Youster) adds to the mix. A fine performance here, Vicky commanded the stage with her over the top hysterics, well done.  Her brother claims the root of her problem is her fixation upon the story of the ghost train, which she insists she once heard, and has since become obsessed with seeing it....whatever the consequences. However, she begs the others to go away before it is too late or, if they will not, under any circumstances to look out at the train. This inevitably increases the tension as the station bell rang to warn of the arrival of the ghost train.

The set is well-constructed, authentically designed and totally believable as the rundown Fal-Vale train station, the doors of the waiting room seem to be stable, well equipped to hold out any ghosts skulking around the platform. Together with a series of atmospheric sound and lighting affects helps to establish the creeping sense of dread among the passengers.  Well done Brian Williamson, Nick Nawdry, and the set building team.

Eventually the truth behind the ghost train is revealed.  Enter Jackson (David Tolcher) a policeman, who has arrested the stationmaster, the doctor, Mr Price and the melodramatic Julia Price: or should I say Chicago Sal… if I tell you any more I would have to kill you!!!

Go and see the play…

Thank you for inviting me; it was a really entertaining evening.

 

Joanne Rymer

NODA

District 4

 

 

 

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