Photo credits: Neil Davis
With Halloween decorations creeping into shop windows and shelves filling with seasonal pumpkins and Dracula teeth, there couldn’t be a better time for The Ghost Train to arrive at the platform in Penarth. The Paget Rooms, standing just opposite Penarth railway station, provides the perfect stage for Arnold Ridley’s 1920s thriller, a play that reminds us that a good ghost story never loses its power to thrill.
An assortment of stranded travellers find themselves spending the night in a lonely country railway station, where the station master warns of a phantom train said to bring death to anyone who sees it. From where I’m sat in the front row, the tension is there, heightened by flickering lamps, echoing footsteps and faint train rumblings.
The ten-strong cast brings Ridley’s group of travellers to life. Alex Wilson delivers a convincing turn as the station master, Saul Hodgkin, while Laura Day and Andrew Moreton capture the fractious energy between Elsie and Richard Winthrop. Jacob Griffiths and Lauren Jenkins shine as newlyweds Charles and Peggy Murdock, bringing warmth, with Sally Mathias providing comic brilliance as the unshakeable Miss Bourne. Joshua Ogle’s Teddie Deakin adds a mischievous edge, and Kelly Thompson as Julia Price grounds the chaos with poise and quiet tension. Chris Glynn, as John Sterling, carefully commands the stage, and Ian Court as Jackson completes the cast with an authority that anchors the play’s final moments.
Directed by a newcomer to PODS, Gray Hill, he brings a fresh touch to this 100 year old classic, the production also features music composed by Chris Glynn and beautifully recorded with Rebecca Warner on cello — a haunting sound that perfectly complements the play’s mood. Andy Bradshaw’s costumes — which you can read more about in the souvenir programme — capture the interwar era, while a documentary photographer from the University of South Wales has also been capturing rehearsals, backstage life and audience reactions for a forthcoming exhibition at The Paget Rooms.
After the interval, the pace picks up considerably as the mystery deepens and is unravelled. One of the evening’s funniest moments came courtesy of Sally Mathias’ Miss Bourne, whose drunken slumber left both the cast and audience momentarily forgetting she was still on stage — to great comic effect.
As Halloween nears, Penarth Operatic & Dramatic Society offers the perfect seasonal scare.
The Ghost Train by Penarth Operatic & Dramatic Society is on at Penarth’s Paget Rooms 8 – 11 October 2025. Limited tickets priced at £18 available online here.
