Windsor Theatre Royal – until Sat 23rd March 2024
Reviewed by Carly Burlinge
3***
The Haunting is from the ghost stories of Charles Dickens – adapted by Hugh Janes. It tells the story of Lord Gray (Neil James) whilst at his fathers deteriorating mansion after his death. He employs David Filde (Ross Muir) to catalogue his family’s very outstanding library, In order to get the estate settled.
As David works his way through cataloguing it becomes apparent that all is not as it seems. When books begin to fall from the shelves and sinister sounds and voices asking for help tend to appear at night with further strange going-ons. Along with Twitcher Lord Gray’s coachman telling him that the house is haunted and that he shouldn’t be staying the night. David begins to wonder exactly what threatening secrets the house may hold. He tries to speak to Lord Gray regarding the strange happenings but Grey seems to have an answer for everything and thinks of David as foolish and believes that even his coachman Twicher, loves to tell a great tale at times and should not be listened to! As the evening unravels, his mind begins to change when the unexplained begins to occur more than once. Things start to get far more spookier with books falling from the shelves and a ghostly woman in a torn wedding dress (Char Brickes) appearing before their eyes. Together they work as a team to discover why the unsettling appearances continue to happen.
The two actors played a great contrast between one another with Lord Gray being quite the sceptic and with David playing quite an enthusiastic character regarding the supernatural, balancing them out nicely. I felt that the first half was a little slow but picked up a better pace throughout the second half which was enjoyable to watch.
I have to admit there were a few twists at the end making it up to you to draw your own conclusion, as I found that there were some questions that seemed to be unanswered.
The sound affects added to the dramatic atmosphere alongside the stage which provided everything you needed for a haunted house.
All in all it was an enjoyable night out at the beautiful Windsor Theatre as always.