The Ghost Train

It is always a pleasure and something of an adventure to attend a production at Ovingham. On this particular evening the “adventure” aspect was provided by Director, Jim Wardle, who shuffled up beside me shortly after I entered the Reading Room to advise that, at short notice, he would be replacing one of the cast and, as he’d had no time to learn the lines, he would be discretely carrying a copy of the script about his person, That aside …

The Ghost Train is a comedy-drama, written in 1923 by Arnold Ridley (familiar to many from Dad’s Army) featuring a disparate group of travellers stranded at a small, rural Cornish railway station. But, first, there is stationmaster, Saul Hodgkin (Jim Wardle) who greets the waifs and strays with news there is no relief train and they’ll need to vacate the premises when he leaves work. When they appear reluctant, he persuades them a ghost train haunts the line, to try to make them leave.

The group includes a “posh” couple, Richard and Elsie Winthrop (Bill Clegg and Lorraine White), who definitely don’t fancy a five mile country walk, in the dark, to the nearest farm. Then we have newlywed Charles and Peggy Murdock (Richard Heslop and Liz Lake), itching to get their hands on each other, not fancying a long walk either. Miss Bourne (Sue Douglas) is a rather severe spinster lady, not happy about such salacious goings on. Fortunately, she becomes drunk and incapable, missing most of the action, unconscious on a table. Next there is Teddie Deakin (TT Arvind) who, at least initially, appears something of a silly ass English person. There are more, including a young lady, Julia Price (Nicki Irvin); her mother, Harriet Price (Lizzie Hodgson); John Sterling (Ray Moore), a well set up man of indeterminate age; Jackson (Tony Overton) who turns out to be a detective; and two policepersons (Brenda Parker and Val Mennear). So, a pretty mixed bag.

Teddie Deakin, it transpires, caused their predicament, having lost his hat from the train window and pulling the communication cord to retrieve it, Despite the stationmaster's spooky stories (and his apparent death), they decide to camp down for the night in the waiting-room. They soon regret this decision, as ghostly and not so ghostly occurrences occur before Teddie reveals the truth behind the night's discombobulating events. As always, the cast are mostly familiar to their audience and, obviously, comfortable with each other. Mostly, they play their parts and the rather farcical series of events, as straight as they can in the circumstances. This, of course, makes them all the more funny and, along the way, they provide a thoroughly entertaining evening.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.