The Ghost Train - October 2008

All Aboard The 'Ghost Train' With Lovelace Theatre Group

Hucknall's Lovelace Theatre Group are on track to celebrate their 40th anniversary with performances of 'The Ghost Train'.

This was the first production of the old Hucknall Drama Club, which disbanded in the late 1940's.
In 1968, David henty founded Hucknall Dramatic Society, which was re-named Hucknall Community Theatre Group in 1995.
The church hall, where they performed, received a £250,000 renovation ans was reopened as Hucknall Community Centre, with the main hall re-named the Lovelace Theatre.
The Ogle Street building is now known as the John Godber Centre and it was there that the group adopted their present name. Despite the changes, a lot of peole still refer to the centre as the church hall.
Written in 1923, 'The Ghost train' is a comedy-thriller set in the Cornish train station of Far Vale. A group of characters are stranded at the station for the night, due to a mishap..
They soon learn of a local superstition about a phantom train which is said to travel these parts dead of night, carrying ghosts from a long ago train-wreck in the area. The travellers eventually get to the bottom of things that go bump in the night.
Guarnenteed to provide both laughs and shivers, the play is being performed from next Thursday till Saturday, the last performance to include a buffet.

Comedy revived memories of Robin Bailey

Outdated expressions like 'dashed peculiar', in which you find in yhis famous play by Arnold Ridley, show how much times have changed since it was first performed.

But then again. a production by Hucknall Lovelace Theatre group of the comedy-thriller was all about nostagia.

For the 'Ghost train' was the first offering by the group's predecessor, Hucknall Drama Club, in the 1930's, when celebrated Hucknall born actor Robin Bailey became a member.

To mark the 40th anniversary of the theatre group, the last of three performances took the form of a reunion night.. Sadly, David Henty, who founded Hucknall Dramatic Society - by which the group was previously known - could not attend.

But 38 past members were among those present and buffet refreshments were laid on. The production lived up to the occasion and Peter Frost, who also directed the play, was particularly impressive as businessman Richard Winthorpe.

Richard is one of a motley group of passengers marooned for an eventful night at a remote Cornish railway station claimed to be haunted.

The others are Richard's wife, Elsie (Linda Mayes), newly married couple Charles and Peggy Murdoch (Michael Tan and Kim Storer), the strait laced Miss Bourne (Rachal Williams) and the seemingly doltish Teddie Deakin (Stuart Bull)

Teddie has got them all into this mess by pulling a train's communication cord to get out and retrieve his hat.

With a full blooded Cornish twang, Willy Morrison, as station master Saul Hodgkin, made th e most of his big speech as he tells how the station acquired a spokky reputation after a train crash.

The sudden appearance of a mysterious girl, Julia Price (Chloe Smith), pursued by her uncle (Alan Bell) and a doctor (Derek Frearson), enhance the tension, leading to the phantom train's thunderous arrival.

Carl Wilkinson and Pete McFarlane completed the cast and the set was painstakingly designed to match that of the old Drama Club production.