2:22
Seeing a play, a ghost story, for a second time has its pitfalls. Do you remember what happens? Will it make you jump in the same way that it did on that first viewing? Well I have to say that if anything I found it better a second time around. Okay, I admit that the twists and turns I remembered, well for the most part. It certainly keeps the audiences attention, and it makes them jump. I have no doubt that some of the more scaredy-cats will have regretted taking a drink in with them.
But for me what I loved this time was recognising the subtle tells in the script, the clever devices employed by playwright Danny Robins that this time around I was able to spot as the evening unfolded.
We the audience are asked not to tell what happens and as ever I will respect that. I only wish that some of my fellow members of the press would refrain from relating the entire content of a play in their reviews!
It’s so good to see a traditional and realistic set for this and some excellent lighting, effects and soundscape, truly chilling. And did I detect the aroma of fresh coffee being made on stage? Or was that the power of suggestion?
The cast certainly deliver, it’s a pacy production, packed with enormous energy. And none more energetic than Kevin’s Clifton’s hyperactive Sam, bounding around the set, jerking, twitching and spitting out his lines as the arrogant husband.
Shvorne Marks is delightful as Lauren, chucking the booze down from the word go until alcohol starts to loosen her tongue. Grant Kilburn makes an excellent Ben, the builder who is romantically punching way above his weight, or so we are told. In the real world would we really think that? Are those barriers of class still in place? Maybe they are.
Finally, and by no means least we get Jenny, the wife, the fragile shell of a mother at the centre of what is unashamedly a ghost story. That’s not a spoiler, the play is billed as such. We all know Stacey Dooley from her many guises on TV, but not as an actor. Well from now on she can add that title to her CV with pride. She absolutely inhabits the role and does it with skill. She is a natural, utterly convincing in every way, word perfect, a torrent of shifting emotions from start to finish. Who knew? I hope that we see her again in something new as she certainly proves herself in this compellingly scary story.
Andrew Kay
6 October
Theatre Royal Brighton
Rating:
