Leith Theatre presents The Ghost Train, Church Hill Theatre

Published on Friday 15 May 2009 10:00

Leith Theatre presents The Ghost Train ***, Church Hill Theatre 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.