‘Edith in the Dark’.
Thriller play’s first performance in Wales!
Would you have believed that the lady author of ‘The Railway Children’ would have a penchant for the darker side? Well she certainly had. The less well-known part of Edith Nesbit’s writings were rather more for adults, and often of the ghost story/lesser horror genre. This aspect of her work is the subject of Radyr Drama Society’s next production, being performed at Morganstown Village Hall, Cardiff, on 24th/25th and 26th of November. (Tickets available from Gill Evans (2084 2432); Ener chi in Station Road, Radyr; and ticketsource at £10, £9 (concessions) and £7 (students).
Created by script-writer and playwright Philip Meeks, this relatively new piece of work for theatre was first performed at Harrogate in 2013, and subsequently at the Edinburgh Festival in 2015.
The author has invited an unknown young male admirer of her work up to her attic writing room, in order to escape her husband’s Christmas Eve party. Aided and abetted by her housekeeper and companion Biddy Thricefold , Edith embarks on a number of readings from her ghostly tales for adults. Each member of the trio takes turns in reading in the dialogue of characters in the stories. All this takes place, while an unseen young female party guest, who earlier fainted, is recovering in an adjacent bedroom.
From time to time between stories, the young male guest’s identity is briefly questioned, but with no clear answer forthcoming as to who he is. As the tension mounts, an awful truth comes to light, and the identities of the young woman in the adjacent room, and of Edith’s young male admirer, are revealed in a dramatic and unexpected ending.
As well as such recent successes as ‘The Sunshine Boys’ and ‘Barefoot in the Park’, Radyr Drama Society aims also to be innovative in presenting some newer material. ‘Edith in the Dark’ is very much in that category, and is certainly a play not to be missed.
(You can read more about Edith Nesbit’s ‘darker side’ in a recent Guardian article – see here.)