CFI Blogs

Country Air - A Contemporary Ghost Story

At Paradise in The Vault 13.35, by Mere Anarchy

A new play by a new company and a new writer, all in the atmospheric cellar vaults of St Augustine's United Church.

The writer, Jack Goulder, acts as narrator too - initially emerging from below a sheet covering some furniture (don't worry it's not a ghost story with people running around with sheets over their head).  A quick prelude to let us know where we are - City banker, stressed with his job, wife with miscarriage, relocate to isolated house in Somerset to try to kickstart their lives.

So - a good setting for a  ghost story - and where do we go from there?  The young cast make a good job of the whole show and we are treated to some inoffensive postmodern breaking down of the fourth wall - removal men complaining they are poorly written and typecast as working class stereotypes, characters interacting with the narrator and so on. 

We have standard ghost story tropes - mysterious child glimpsed out of window, history constantly re-enacting itself as the events unfold and some great satire on middle class hypocrisy, mediocrity and desire for hummus. I won't say where the play ends up - I'll let you discover that for yourselves, I will say that there is one section that made the hairs on my arms stand up though!  Not a perfect play but a lot more enjoyable than some of the stuff on offer in the Fringe and a good start for this group.