The Ghost Train

This is one of the old ones, written by Arnold Ridley, otherwise known as Private Godfrey from ‘Dad’s Army’. He wrote it in 1925 and it was set in that time, using the phraseology of the time, and it was

pleasing to find that this production had stayed true to the essence of the original and not tried to bring it up to date by changing the dialogue. Also, the feel of the period was maintained by the authenticity of the costumes from their excellent wardrobe department. I didn’t spot any anachronisms, and I usually do if there are any.

The play is set in the waiting room of an isolated railway station somewhere in Cornwall and they captured the atmosphere of such a place admirably, even with the smoke from the fire in the grate. The characters were beautifully portrayed and the humour was of the era of ‘Dad’s Army’ when humour was still funny. Oops, I’m showing my age.

The whole production was excellent and the casting was perfect. Jerry Harvey played an excellent Cornish station master, Jo Jefferson and Michael Thorne played a middle aged couple who were talking about a separation, Russ Thorne and Zoe Buller played a couple of newly-weds and Marguerite MacLellan played the wonderful Miss Bourne, an elderly, no nonsense spinster. Rachel Smith played a very convincing mad girl; Iain Johnson played her brother who was trying to get her to return home with the help of the scary Dr. Sterling played by Robert LeMare. Nevin Ward played the secret service agent and Derek Howard played a police constable.

And then there was Teddy Deakin played superbly by Peter Buller. This was a sort of ‘Noel Coward’ type character, played to perfection. It is always a temptation to over do it when playing a camp character, but Peter kept it exactly right. I know people just like that.

Another aspect of this play, which could go horribly wrong, is the special effects, particularly the train roaring through the station. This was sensational. Stephen Speilberg couldn’t have done better.

Having done a bit of directing myself, I can’t help noticing things that are badly directed. In fact I’m a bit over-critical in this area, but in this production there was absolutely nothing I could find fault with. I think Brian Hicks can feel very proud of his directorial debut.

It was an extremely enjoyable evening, well worth turning out for, even on a chilly January evening.

David Ayre