★★★

“a thoroughly enjoyable evening”

Adapted for the stage by director Dugald Bruce-Lockhart, ‘The Shadow in the Mirror’ reimagines Gerald Durrell’s short story ‘The Entrance’, in which the English antiquarian Peter Letting (Nick Waring) becomes embroiled in a supernatural curse through his employment by a young French nobleman (Gregg Lowe). Set between the prison in which Letting is forced to confess his supernatural experiences, the courtroom, his home in England, and the haunted house he unwittingly enters to catalogue the exquisite book collection of a dead man, the production delivers an entertaining, easy-to-watch night of light horror.

With a floor-to-ceiling, rounded mirror in the middle of the stage, Diego Pitarch’s elaborate set unquestionably evokes the right quasi-Victorian mystery, though the omission of a proper bookcase is just as mysterious. The central mirror is flanked by stairs and balconies, with one side subtly accommodating the seedier haunts the story takes us, and the other the more respectable spaces. However, it is not a very efficient set: its level of detail makes it feel static and ill-suited to the continuous transformation the narrative demands, leaving the ensemble to rely on Bruce-Lockhart’s dynamic direction and Mike Robertson’s atmospheric lighting to evoke changes of scene.

In the director’s adaptation, much time is spent setting up the action in the first act, making the second act feel rather plot-heavy. Staging the occult is difficult, and Bruce-Lockhart’s script depends on the continuous description of past events to do it. Simon Slater’s extensive sound design brings the narration to life, though the many sound effects sometimes border on gimmicky. As Peter Letting, Waring is often left repeating the words ‘and then…’, rendering the production somewhat guilty of a “tell don’t show” approach. The previously mentioned central mirror at the back of the stage remained criminally underused during the many descriptions of ‘what Peter Letting saw’ (in his reflection). John the jailer (George Dillon) is an engaging storyteller, but the cast shines in scenes with more action, with a particularly entertaining performance by Giles Taylor as the prosecutor in Letting’s trial.

A ticket to this production at the Mill at Sonning near Reading includes the performance as well as a comforting two-course meal in its atmospheric historic restaurant. In combination, the Mill at Sonning and ‘The Shadow in the Mirror’ deliver a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

DUET at Theatre at the Tabard

★★★

“And while the intimacy of the piece is fitting, Morgan and Straus fail to capture the richness and depth of the legendary characters”

More than a century before our Celebrity Culture took hold, the legendary actors Sarah Bernhardt and Eleonora Duse became the pioneers of superstardom. Their rivalry has been said to have changed acting forever, becoming two of the first to achieve lasting worldwide fame. George Bernard Shaw almost certainly fuelled their enmity, praising Duse for ‘the best modern acting I have ever seen’, going on to say that while Bernhardt was ‘charming, artful and clever’, Duse ‘touches you straight on the very heart’.

Their approach to their art couldn’t have been more dissimilar. Duse favoured a naturalistic and contemporary style, using the power of emotion on stage while Bernhardt adopted the method style of acting with flamboyant gestures. Yet they still shared the same passion and should have – could have – been friends. Their story is of two people who had too much in common but were as different as night and day. Otho Eskin, in his play “Duet” imagines a final meeting of the two; one month before Duse’s death and a year after Bernhardt’s.

Duse (Cynthia Straus) is in ill-health, backstage at a theatre in Pittsburgh. Alone and far from home she is about to perform, for the very last time, as Marguerite in Alexandre Dumas’ “La Dame Aux Camelias”. A role she has played many times before, and one which Bernhardt made famous. Threatening to cancel the performance she sends the theatre manager away so she can be left with her own reflections. Only it isn’t herself she sees, but the ghost of Bernhardt (Wendy Morgan) who wanders into her dressing room threatening to upstage her once more.

Duse initially reacts like a cornered cat. ‘You don’t belong here anymore’. Bernhardt fails to tame her: ‘We could have been friends’. ‘No’ replies Duse bluntly. The initial antagonism slowly gives way to a resignation that the two are confined together until they settle some sort of score. Over the next ninety minutes we witness their differences slowly bringing them together, while a diffident affection tugs at the hems of their overblown egos.

Ludovica Villar-Hauser’s unostentatious staging neatly cuts from their dialogue to flashbacks and reminiscences. They are fragments that shed some light on their backstories, focusing on a pivotal moment when Duse went to Paris to play Marguerite – a role that Bernhardt claimed was hers alone. Throughout their ghostly encounter, Nick Waring comes and goes as the various men who weave in and out of their professional and personal lives.

The crucial questions, though, remain unanswered. And while the intimacy of the piece is fitting, Morgan and Straus fail to capture the richness and depth of the legendary characters. We are seeing them both with their masks down, yet we never really do get a glimpse of what might have lain beneath. Eskin has done his research, but the somewhat flat delivery presses the dialogue into a monochrome portrayal. The sense of mystery or discovery we were expecting becomes the ghostly presence that the writer and performers can never quite grasp. And, as a result, neither can we.

Tag Archives: Nick Waring

THE SHADOW IN THE MIRROR

★★★

The Mill at Sonning

THE SHADOW IN THE MIRROR

The Mill at Sonning

★★★

“a thoroughly enjoyable evening”

THE SHADOW IN THE MIRROR

The Mill at Sonning

Reviewed on 26th September 2025

by Lola Stakenburg

Photography by Pamela Raith

Previously reviewed at this venue:

WHITE CHRISTMAS | ★★★★ | December 2024

BEDROOM FARCE | ★★★★ | August 2024

THREE MEN IN A BOAT | ★★★ | June 2024

CALENDAR GIRLS | ★★★★ | April 2024

THE SHADOW

THE SHADOW

THE SHADOW

DUET

★★★

Theatre at the Tabard

DUET at Theatre at the Tabard

★★★

“And while the intimacy of the piece is fitting, Morgan and Straus fail to capture the richness and depth of the legendary characters”