THE SHADOW OF THE GHOST AT THE THEATRE ROYAL, WINDSOR
Repertory was, back in the day, the way actors learned their craft, learning their lines for the following week’s production while acting in the current one.
Nowadays, if they don’t get at least four weeks’ rehearsal they are hard done by, so I greatly admire the members of the cast of the present production at the Theatre Royal who have leapt into other roles.
Now into the second week of their five-week Classic Thriller Season, these members of the TABS Productions’ company are proving just how versatile they are by presenting a world premiere which, while it has connections with last week’s play, sees them playing completely different characters.
Last week’s opening play of the season,The Ghost Train, is a classic comedy written by Arnold Ridley, set in a haunted railway station. The Shadow of the Ghost is set in a theatre where an inept am dram society is rehearsing the said play.
Co-written by Arnold Ridley’s son, Nicholas Ridley, with Chris Ponka, it is a melting pot of suspense, spookiness and side-splitting fun, a sort of Noises Off with more than one spine-chilling twists.
Tales of a manager who hanged himself and an actor’s death on the very stage they are rehearsing, unnerve the few amateurs who have turned up for a Sunday afternoon rehearsal, and when unexplainable things begin to happen, the plot thickens.
Be sure there is a bit of everything in this play; lots of surprises, lots of laughs, more than just a touch of Agatha Christie, and some sterling performances from, among others, Andrew Ryan as Jack Taylor (entirely different in character and looks from his character last week of the idiotic Teddie Deacon) and Susan Earnshaw as the super sleuth Miss Maple!
Slow to start but building up to yet another enjoyable evening, The Shadow of the Ghost has something for everyone.
CLAIRE BROTHERWOOD uktheatre.net
Repertory was, back in the day, the way actors learned their craft, learning their lines for the following week’s production while acting in the current one.
Nowadays, if they don’t get at least four weeks’ rehearsal they are hard done by, so I greatly admire the members of the cast of the present production at the Theatre Royal who have leapt into other roles.
Now into the second week of their five-week Classic Thriller Season, these members of the TABS Productions’ company are proving just how versatile they are by presenting a world premiere which, while it has connections with last week’s play, sees them playing completely different characters.
Last week’s opening play of the season,The Ghost Train, is a classic comedy written by Arnold Ridley, set in a haunted railway station. The Shadow of the Ghost is set in a theatre where an inept am dram society is rehearsing the said play.
Co-written by Arnold Ridley’s son, Nicholas Ridley, with Chris Ponka, it is a melting pot of suspense, spookiness and side-splitting fun, a sort of Noises Off with more than one spine-chilling twists.
Tales of a manager who hanged himself and an actor’s death on the very stage they are rehearsing, unnerve the few amateurs who have turned up for a Sunday afternoon rehearsal, and when unexplainable things begin to happen, the plot thickens.
Be sure there is a bit of everything in this play; lots of surprises, lots of laughs, more than just a touch of Agatha Christie, and some sterling performances from, among others, Andrew Ryan as Jack Taylor (entirely different in character and looks from his character last week of the idiotic Teddie Deacon) and Susan Earnshaw as the super sleuth Miss Maple!
Slow to start but building up to yet another enjoyable evening, The Shadow of the Ghost has something for everyone.
CLAIRE BROTHERWOOD uktheatre.net