THEATRE REVIEW: The Canterville Ghost Musical - United Reformed Church, Buxton.

The short humorous ghost story with a moralistic ending by Oscar Wilde has seen many adaptations over the years, and is ideal for small-scale and fringe companies to tackle since the cast is not large, and there's a ready-made story full of fun, mischief, frights, and good-old American no-nonsense practicality, as well as the obligatory fun-poking at the differences between the USA and the UK in terms of language, humour, customs, and society. Yes, it is a ghost story, but never should it stray into horror and scarefest territory; it is light-hearted and family-friendly.

Magpie Theatre's version this afternoon at the United Reformed Church hall in Buxton as part of the Buxton Fringe Festival was a more minimalist affair than it perhaps ought to have been. Plastic chairs and wipe-clean plastic table-cloths, no mater how hard the imagine tried to work, could not represent the olde-worlde opulence of Canterville Manor, and a simple piece of black material across the rear of their acting space would have saved us from the windowed walls of the hall and us seeing people walking across on the other side.  

In this version the father and son had been combined into the one person, so Washington Otis was now married to Mrs. Otis, and they had one child, Virginia, who was of marrying age. Two smaller male roles were performed by one actress, whilst the live-in maid / servant was performed by a second actress, with the cast being completed by the Canterville Ghost himself. Sadly without a programme I am unable to credit anyone, but this production was very much in danger of becoming a parody of a parody. Overacting and comedic melodramatic direction was definitely the order of the day; with the ghost being far more shouty and nasty than mischievous and devilish. The actress who played Virginia was the only one of the six to portray a centred and believable character, and the only one with whom the audience truly had any sympathy. The rest far cartoon-esque, and the laughs from the audience were very few and far between.

This was a musical, and original songs had been written for this show by, one can only assume, the pianist. Seated at the rear of the hall, he played the music far too loudly throughout, and the sound resonated across the hall. Sadly, this had the effect of drowning out the vast majority of the lyrics, and when cast were singing on the opposite side of the stage, one had no chance at all to understand what they were singing. Again, credit must go to Virginia, as she managed to make her plaintive solo song, despite the pianist, sound sweet and we understood every word. 

Costuming needs a little more attention, since facial jewelry needed to be removed, and the aging make-up of the maid would only be appropriate on a large prosc arch stage with stage lighting; this afternoon she just looked ill, and she was not acting any older than 25.

With a little more thought, this could have been a highly entertaining production. However, in its current form, it was hugely disappointing and uninspiring. 

Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 23.7.23