Civic Theatre, Darlington – 14 October 2015
The double bill of two one act plays arrives in Darlington to send chills in to the souls of the audience .
The Waiting Room by Robert Aickman tells of George Pendlebury, a middle aged man who misses his train connection and ends up staying the night in the stations Waiting Room. Set in the 1950’s it goes back and forth from the current time to the war. It was beautifully staged and it was well lit, making the waiting room so normal it was the anticipation that made it eerie. It was well acted, Jack Shepherd constructed a totally believable character and anchored the play. But it whilst it was good it wasn’t scary enough.
This piece is not the main event. It is equalled by The Signalman of Charles Dickens. This dovetails fabulously with the first story, set in a railway signal box this time. It dwells on the supernatural, on illusion and on superstition.
‘The Signalman’ (originally a short story by Charles Dickens) has been brilliantly adapted to the stage, and it’s a taut suspenseful tale, that unfolds with certain precision, by degrees, and Jack Shepherd conveys a sense of dread and foreboding in his role of signalman: his predicament is akin to the tightening of a screw: it’s a very moving performance. You feel from the outset that the signalman is a tortured soul. Shepherd captures the mental decline of this character superbly and his confidante’s (Richard Walsh) steadfast logic only exaggerates his fragile state of mind. Each of the stellar cast puts in a top performance. The play abounds in knowing looks as the actors fulfil their roles in these old-fashioned tales. Walsh provides the anchor and helps to illuminate the finely balanced relationship between the two main characters, that moves from haunting self-doubt to real terror, almost effortlessly. The set is wonderful, there’s a real sense of a person incarcerated in a signal box at the bottom of a huge chasm, and the special effects are haunting indeed.
Special mention must go to the team who changed the sets over in the extended 30 minute interval. The sets, in both shows, were impressive and it is all beautiful staged
Michael Lunney, Director and co-founder of Middle Ground Theatre Company, has done a great job with Classic Ghosts: it was a great evening of live theatre, and the feedback from the theatre audience at the end of the performance, confirms that it delivered scares a plenty.
In Darlington until Saturday 17 October and on tour around the UK