The Haunting of Blaine Manor has returned to Darlington Hippodrome, after first seeing the show over a year ago, I was hoping it would return and I certainly wasn’t disappointed.
Set in 1953 the play focuses on the American paranormal investigator, Doctor Roy Earle (Peter Slater), who has been invited to Blaine Manor for a séance, where he on arrival encountered a horse causing him to swerve and ended up driving into the lake.
Finding that there have been no stables there for over 100 years, he’s told that anyone who sees the mysterious horseman will be dead by dawn.
Roy declares that ghosts don’t exist, though it appears that something in the house has suddenly been awoken.
The other people gathered in the haunted Blaine Manor included Cairo (Andrew Yates) the stage mind reader, the medium Adolphus Scarabus (Jimmy Allen) the journalist Vivian Rutledge (Jo Haydock) and completing the cast with the representative of the house owner, Vincent (Ed Barry) and the butler Grady (Joe O’Byrne).
The first act methodically introduces the range of characters, as the script, written by Joe O’Byrne, as it cleverly drops in the clues throughout.
In the second act, not only the story, but the house itself came alive. With twists and turns as it reached its unexpected twist at the end.
The set is relatively sparse, with an eerie atmospheric soundscape created by Justin Wetherill, with creative lighting by David Heald all depicting the threat within the house.
A perfect evening for a gentle ghost story with plenty of surprises.
The Haunting of Blaine Manor runs until tomorrow, Saturday August 23 at Darlington Hippodrome.
