WHAT better venue for Arnold Ridley's tale of
mystery, myth and ghostly goings on than Morningside's Church Hill Theatre.
Reopened in August 2006 following an extensive
refurbishment, the main auditorium still maintains all of its old- fashioned
charm, and provided a fitting backdrop for a play performed by Leith Theatre,
themselves descendants of the Kirkgate Church Theatre Group.
Written in the 1920s, the scene is set late at night in an out-of-the-way
railway station in stormy Cornwall. Stranded in the dilapidated waiting room
by a missed connection, six strangers find themselves caught up in a local
legend, with no means of escape until the next train in the morning.
Twenty years before, to the day, at precisely 11 o'clock where we find the
action, the eerie station played host to a fatal train crash. Legend has it
that ever since, it has been haunted by the victims of the crash and the
"Ghost Train" that carried them to their deaths.
This classic 1920s thriller has become a cult play in modern times. Written by
the actor Arnold Ridley – who is best remembered for his role as Private
Godfrey in Dad's Army – it was something of a show-stopper in its day,
employing pioneering special effects in sound and lighting.
No longer pioneering but still very effective, Leith Theatre's creative and
technical teams did a fantastic job of creating the wind-swept platform and
the mysterious visitations of the ghostly carriage train. Inside the waiting
room itself every detail was taken care of, right down to the age-curled maps
on the grimy, tobacco stained walls.
This dingy, depressed scene remained the backdrop for the whole play and the
actors did a fine job of conveying an uneasy, oppressive and uncomfortable
atmosphere as cabin fever gradually got the better of them. The play worked
best when all the actors were on stage, each bouncing off one another,
building a tense and expectant atmosphere as the clock ticked ominously
towards the whistle of the Ghost Train.
As the plot twisted and turned some of the timings were a little out, which
occasionally made keeping up a little difficult. And at first some of the
dialogue was a hard to catch, swept away by sound effects or disappearing into
the lofty ceiling of the theatre.
Most certainly not struggling to be heard was the delightful Alison Kennedy as
Miss Bourne. Cantankerous, pompous and unapologetically prim, she was an
up-turned nose ahead of her fellow cast members and provided such a
professional rendition of drunkenness you had to wonder if she had slipped
some real brandy in her prop hip flask.
It was fittingly Miss Bourne who had the last word. Curled up in a drunken
stupor as the plot unravels and the mysteries are solved, the audience almost
forgets her presence at all. "I'm glad I didn't miss anything
exciting" she remarks. And after three acts of thrills, drama, twists and
turns, cast and audience all groan together.