The Ghost Train pulls into town. This play is an oldun (first produced in the 1920s) but certainly still a goodun! A ghost story leavened with humour, it provides a thoroughly enjoyable night's entertainment.
A group of train passengers stranded in a wayside railway station, find themselves forced to spend the night in the station waiting room. The crusty old station master, played with ghoulish glee by Barrie McCausland, warns them that the station is haunted by the Ghost of a train which crashed 20 years before.
Their scepticism is soon shaken as events seem to prove the old man right and the suspense increases as they wait for the ghost train to pass. A talented cast handles the emotional highs and lows effectively with particularly good performances from Katrina Hill and Peter Freund. John Daykin and Gordon Boyd are suitably heroic as they protect their wives played by Lesley Hale and Sarah McVeigh, while Susan King's tipsy elderly spinster is a delight. Ian Dunwoodie and Martin McGettigan add to the mystery with their roles. The sound and lighting effects as the train approaches shake the theatre as smoke billows from the engine. The waiting room set and the ‘20s costuming evoke the period vividly. One cannot of course reveal the ending but suffice to say, all is explained in due course!
