On the evening that I visited the Brockley Jack Studio Theatre, for the first time in ages, it was raining ‘cats and dogs’ – the sort of weather you would do your damnedest to stay out of. By pure coincedence, the protagonist in the play I was going to see was going through exactly the same situation… Written and directed by Luke Adamson (and inspired from a short story by Walter De La Mare) The Girl in the Green Room is a ghost story that has much in common with the oeuvre of MR James and Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black.

Told by Thomas (Joseph Lindoe) – the play’s sole ‘live’ performer on stage, the audience is taken into his confidence, as he recalls an incident that took place in nearby Penge. Taking shelter from horrendous weather, Thomas finds himself in a bookshop. However, upon finding no one present, his desire to find the source of the noise there takes him down a labyrinthine quest, with each ‘answer’ begetting more questions… His predicament reminded me of the old rhyme: ‘In a dark, dark house was a dark, dark room…’

Ghost stories ‘live and die’ by the narrator’s ability to convey atmosphere and fear, and Lindoe’s calm, measured performance adds credibililty to the possibility of the supernatural. But it is Adamson’s sound design that really fleshes out the aural dimension of the proceedings, enabling the audience to share in Thomas’s ‘disorientation’.

The ghost (which is voiced by Laura White) is only heard in a limited capacity. But within one scene involving a line of questioning, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the beginning of Meatloaf’s You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth, which had a similar ‘rhythm’ and meter with its opening questions. Maybe Jim Steinman who wrote the song was influenced by La Mare’s tale.

As for ‘the message’ within the play, it mirrors the source material in that it is not 100% clearcut, even with all the answers. But without a ‘karmic’ element to the proceedings, perhaps ‘happenstance’ is a more frightening proposition…

© Michael Davis 2024

The Girl in the Green Room runs at Brockley Jack Studio Theatre until 25th May.