The Ghost Train (revised)

There’s nothing like a chilling ghostly story in the week of Hallowe’en, and Arnold Ridley’s newly revised The Ghost Train was just the ticket. The tale of a group of strangers left in a cold waiting room in a station in the middle of nowhere sets the tension and a sense of foreboding for the story about to unfold.

The set looked absolutely like an old fashioned waiting room on the side of a platform. The door stage left opened to the platform side and the door stage right went into ticket office also used for the conductor’s room. A lovely working hatch for ticket sales was also stage right. It was complete with a fireplace that glowed when lit, waiting room style benches right and left, table and chairs in the centre, with a high stool type chair behind plus extra bench used later. It offered lovely opportunities to maximise space which all the actors did very well, naturally moving between everything. The staging worked very well and was seamless, with no blocking, considering there were sometimes seven people in the space it is clear all this had been planned really well.

A lovely touch was to hear them ‘disembarking’ the train behind stage left, and steam appearing under the door for the train, the noises of the train whistle and shunting engine. This instantly set the scene. The conductor lit the lamp on the back wall, and used a chain to increase the gas to it. It had obviously been given a great deal of thought and attention which is so lovely to see, including the hand-held lamp by the conductor, reminiscent of Dickens’ The Signalman.

What really set this apart of being rather special was the train lights moving past the opaque windows on the right of the audience. The venue benefits from these windows being on the right of the audience and to use this to show the train arriving with moving lights behind the windows was a stroke of genius. It was so very effective to feel part of the waiting room that way, and when the actors were indicating how cold they were, the audience noticeably started reacting to feeling cold as well through the suggestion.

The script was originally penned in 1923 yet there is much about the humour and interactions that feels like 1940s as well as some that is 1920s. The stranded women wore dropped waist dresses setting it at the original time but some of the men’s suits were much more modern looking and the woman doctor wore trousers which didn’t quite work. There 1920s were quite rigid in terms of clothing for men and women and wearing trousers and dressing as a man meant acceptance as being a man; the character of Teddie Deakin would have been accepted without the drawn on moustache which unfortunately came across as rather comical.

The amount of character work that had been done by all of the actors was clearly evident in their portrayals. Peter Bowman playing the conductor who tells them all the ghost story at the beginning and comes across firstly as bumbling but hiding a secret motive is a lovely presence on stage. The anger from Aaron Holmes as Richard Winthrop is almost palpable, Sonia Moir matches him as his haughty ‘had enough’ wife. Newlyweds Mr and Mrs Murdock played by Paul Ruse and Hannah Heaton wearing the most delightful 20s style shoes are a lovely contrast of wanting to make the best of things, Hannah’s rising fear and anxiety at the ghostly goings on and Paul’s attempts to comfort her work well. Sue Wicks plays the highly strung Miss Bourne who suddenly loses her starchiness when she accidentally gets drunk really well, Fox Moody plays the profoundly irritating Teddie Deakin with confidence and lack of fear of being disliked. Sarah Leppard does really well as the wide eyed slightly barking mad Julia Price who shockingly switches character at the end. Her comment about police officers getting younger garnered a lovely chuckle in the audience as the Policeman was confidently played by Archie Leppard. Caroline Morley was a commanding Dr Sterling with hidden motives.

There were great facial expressions and all the actors were sure of their roles which was lovely to see. Although individual lines were spoken with meaning and good emotional tone, the flow of the dialogue between the characters could have done with speeding up, which gave the impression of needing more pace, especially in the first act. It’s entirely possible this was due to opening night settling into the pace and the play. The need for more changes in rhythm of the dialogue could therefore have been addressed as the run progressed.

This has clearly been an enjoyable production for all involved, from the warm welcome to all of the audience and their responses to the show. This is a lovely production where so much has gone into it from everyone involved: congratulations to every single person involved for staging this show.

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