Classic Ghosts produced by Middle Ground Theatre Company comes to the Hawth Crawley next week. Terrence Hardiman took the time today to chat to me and tell me more about the two spine-tingling plays.
Classic Ghosts comprises of two Ghost Stories, could you tell me about them?
The first of the plays is a famous ghost story called ‘Oh Whistle, and I’ll come to you, my lad’ by M. R. James, it has been adapted many times for television but this is a rather clever adaptation for the stage by Margaret May Hobbs. It is about an old professor who goes to a hotel by the seaside where he is haunted and we’ll find out why. I play the professor’s golfing companion, an old colonel who is staying at the hotel at the same time who becomes his friend and tries to help him.
It does give the audience a bit of a thrill and a fright. We judge the success of the play by the reaction of the audienceat a certain moment in the play. This particular moment gives the audience a bit of a shock. We wait and listen to see what kind of noise we get from the audience each night- it is usually a scream of surprise. We performed a matinee yesterday and we had a lot of school children attend. They were wonderful, they were very silent through the whole thing and listened with great care and when we got to the crucial moment there were loud squeals.
I daren’t say anymore! Let’s leave the populous to discover what it is.
And the second play ‘The Signalman’?
This play is quite different; it is based on a story by Charles Dickens which he wrote after he had experienced a train crash. Out of that situation came this story about a signalman who works in a signal-box by the mouth of a tunnel and haunted by a ghostly figure. That is as far much as you should know at this point!
How long is each show and how does the transition between the two shows work?
Each play is less than an hour. The first one is about 50mins and the second is about 45mins. During the interval there is a huge scenic change, we have to turn a seaside hotel into a signal-box with a tunnel. It is very clever.
There is no recovery between the plays. We change characters costumes and make up, whilst on stage, the crew are changing the set. It is a huge turn round which we have to complete as quickly as possible. By the time we have done all that, our time will be up and they are calling us to go onstage. There is very little time for a breather.
We are a small team of six involved in the show. Jack Shepherd, Dicken Ashworth and I are onstage the most and although the other three do not possess major roles, they play supporting roles as well as working their socks off behind the scenes. They move scenery, create special effects and make sure everything runs smoothly. I think they are more likely to be tired at the end of the evening than we are.
How easy is it to start again with the second play and clear your mind from the tension of the first one?
I suppose it is part of your training as an actor. You tell a story and then once that story is over you start the next one. You have to pace yourself for it. We know what kind of evening we have ahead and that we have two stories to tell in two hours. Once that’s all over you can have a rest.
I am resting now because we performed twice yesterday and it is surprising how tiring the shows are. A lot of people seem to think it is just standing on stage and chatting away and that it is not hard work. However the ordeal is very tiring, not so much physically but mentally so, due to you using so much concentration.
The tour is going very well. Are you pleased with it so far?
Theatre is just about having a big room with a lot of people in it and sharing a story with them. Some stories involve the audience more than others. Some people like one of our plays better than the other and visa versa. The only thing you can do is judge by the kind of reaction that we feel from the audience as we perform. We do so without trying to pat ourselves on the back too much if it all seems to be well received. We do have some great reactions from people!
I believe that we reach our 100th performance today! We did a 12 week tour from January until April last year after which the shows were put to bed and we all went our own ways to do different things (or go to sleep for a few months) and then the company arranged a further seven dates for us to do. We finish in March so we are now half way through this run and we have about 4 or five more venues to go to.
What’s next for you after Classic Ghosts?
Nothing immediately. I have had a pretty busy year, I have been involved in the television series Wallinder with Kenneth Branagh based on the Swedish thriller stories. It was filmed in Sweden and Denmark with a lovely team of people which was great but very cold. It was very different to this! Television and film are so different to theatre; I always love coming back to theatre.
Do you have an overall preference between Film, TV and Theatre?
I like them all, although, I suppose I am like any actor and will say that probably the most satisfying is the theatre, because you are most in control. In the theatre you go out on stage in front of an audience and it is up to you to get through it. If you go wrong you have to put it right somehow. If you are doing television or film clearly if something goes wrong you can stop and rerecord. In this way, theatre is more satisfying.
I have been lucky and achieved a lot in my career but then so have a lot of actors when they get to my age. I am of an age now where I think that anything that comes after this is a bonus. It is nice to be asked but also I would be perfectly happy to sit back now and not do anything else. At least I think that is the case – we’ll see.
Have you played at the Hawth before?
I haven’t but I hear it is a lovely venue and I am looking forward to it. The closest I have been to Crawley is Glyndebourne in East Sussex, two or three years ago I was in an opera there called Fairy Queen which is based on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I didn’t sing but they needed actors to play the parts while the opera singers did the rest. I had a wonderful time in Glyndeborne over the summer. I have also been to Gatwick, of course, but I admit I don’t know Crawley at all.
I love the fact that when you are on tour you can discover new places. We are in Hereford at the moment and I am waiting for the rain to stop so I can have a little walk around
Classic Ghosts is playing at the Hawth Crawley, 19th-21st February 2015
For further detail and to see the show trailers and more images click here.