★★★★

“a nerve-tingling and thought-provoking adaptation”

We begin in rural Somerset, at the Clayton Inn boarding house in the small hamlet of Clayton. It’s a tight-knit Victorian community where visitors are warmly welcomed. Yet beneath its peaceful surface lies the memory of a long-ago railway disaster — a tragedy whose ghost still casts a shadow over the village.

Helen Bang, as our visitor to the village (this production’s version of the narrator), and Peter Rae (as the signalman) lead a riveting adaptation of the short story first published by Charles Dickens in 1866. Dickens wrote the story shortly after surviving the Staplehurst rail crash in 1865, an incident that affected him deeply and inspired the eerie sense of trauma and claustrophobia that permeates the signal box.

This trauma comes through in the signalman, who claims to have seen the same apparition shortly before two previous tragedies that occurred on the section of the line that he is patrolling; its first appearance coming hours before a train crashed in the tunnel, its second preceding the death of a young woman on the line, whose life the signalman had tried desperately to save. Most eerily though, the apparition has returned for a third time, leaving him incessantly trying to decipher its warnings and avert whatever may be the next tragedy.

Peter Rae expertly crafts this role as our protagonist descends further into confusion and anxiety following the unusual goings-on. Rae acts as Dickens’ storyteller and moves the plot with excellent precision. The most impressive part of his performance is that he encapsulates the themes that were central to the original story over a century later. We see the dangers of isolation, with the signalman working long hours in an isolated location. The performance also achieves a balance whereby the conclusion can be made by the audience as to the origins of the ghostly appearances. Could they be the result of a psychological episode driven by stress and sleep-deprivation-induced hallucinations? Alternatively, could we have entered into the realms of the supernatural?

The tremendous two-hander is completed by Helen Bang, the visitor, who befriends the lonely signalman and accompanies him on his night shifts. Earning his trust, she acts as a sounding board, allowing him to open up about his psychological frailty. She seems an innocuous passer-by but her greeting — “Halloa, below there” — hints that she may be more closely tied to the apparitions than she first appears. It is a quietly stylish performance, as any break in her calmness would destroy the tension of the piece.

The play is able to effortlessly transport us to the scene due to the excellent set design (Karen Holley); incorporating a signal box, fully kitted out with signal flags, levers and switches, behind a railway track. This is accompanied by, in a first for the Drayton Arms Theatre, surround sound effects (Steve Ramondt) which bring the audience into the action.

The climax is arguably not as strong as the set-up, with the ending feeling slightly abrupt. This also means that the play had potential to explore some of the themes in greater depth, where, for example, it felt like the visitor may develop her own character arc in the story. Nonetheless, the show is a nerve-tingling and thought-provoking adaptation which gives new life to the famous novella.

THE TAILOR-MADE MAN at the Stage Door Theatre

★★★★

“Pilcher magnificently captures Haines’ free spirit and rebelliousness”

In 1930, William Haines was listed as the top box-office attraction in Hollywood. Just three years later, however, having made the successful transition to ‘talkies’, Haines’ contract was torn up by studio chief at MGM – Louis B. Mayer – and he was thrown out of the studio. Haines had lived the Bohemian lifestyle of Tinseltown, relying on the studio ‘fixers’ and his PR men to buy the silence of the press. When that eventually failed, the studio bosses sought to silence Haines instead. Almost overnight his name was removed from history and all his movies were withdrawn and locked in a vault where they stayed, unseen, for over sixty years. Why?

Claudio Macor’s play, “The Tailor-Made Man”, charts his story. In today’s society it is unthinkable that Haines was treated the way he was, although there are sadly still remnants of the hypocrisy and double standards that litter the cutting room floors of Hollywood. Haines was openly gay (a dangerous thing to be one hundred years ago) and living with his lifelong partner Jimmie Shields. He refused to bow to the demands of Louis B. Mayer and give Shields up to marry the silent screen vamp Pola Negri, and he paid for it with his career.

Although that is the focus of the story, Macor places it within the wider context of Hollywood in the late twenties and early thirties, throwing light too on some of the more colourful characters that populated that world. In rose-tinted hindsight it is seen as a Golden Age, but Macor’s astute observations unveil the cruel mechanics beneath its glossy, silver-screened veneer. We first see Haines introduced to MGM having been spotted in a talent contest. A mannequin in the eyes of Mayer, naked, blank and ripe to be tailor-made into the next matinee idol. Hugo Pilcher, however, plays him as no dummy. Although initially wide eyed, Pilcher magnificently captures Haines’ free spirit and rebelliousness. Uninhibited and frank, he fearlessly does what he pleases, which is a blessing and a curse. Not always a sympathetic character, his circumstances and Pilcher’s portrayal ensure that we root for him to the end.

With him to the end is Jimmie Shields. Gwithian Evans successfully conveys the bond that keep them together. It is often stretched to breaking point, but Shields always manages to prevent it snapping. Evans shows us the deep frustration but also the devotion and loyalty that is strong enough to bear the Californian heat. Intermittently breaking out of character, Evans uses the transitions to narrate key elements of the story. Split into distinct chapters, the locations and context are beamed onto the back wall like silent movie captions. With Robert McWhir’s uncluttered direction, the story is as clear cut as the finest crystal champagne glass.

Dereck Walker’s depiction of a monstrous, homophobic Louis B. Mayer verges on caricature until we are struck by the frightening realisation that Walker’s interpretation might not be far from the truth at all. An imposing stage presence, that is matched by Peter Rae’s jittery PR guy – Howard Strickling. Sympathetic but obsequious his thankless task is to please everybody. And you know what happens when you do that. Rae, without any need for a physical makeover or visible costume change, brilliantly doubles as Hollywood hack, Victor Darrow, who yearns for the rain-drenched culture of English theatre, but cannot tear himself from the sun, and the sweaty sexuality of Haines and Shields that he likes to bathe in just as much.

The performances, and the writing, draw us into the fascinating story, made more poignant by the fact that this is a true story. But Macor never lets it get too serious. Shelley Rivers is a sunny delight as Marion Davies, even though probably the least researched character, but then again there isn’t the time or space to delve into Davies’ colourful and multi-faceted life. Olivia Ruggiero displays great versatility, as Mayer’s flirtatious secretary, but more significantly lampooning the great Pola Negri, yet still managing to inject a sadness into the character while she draws laughs from the audience.

This is a concise telling of an important slice of movie history. It focuses on some severe injustices, but the lens pans out to reveal a panorama. Evans slips back into narrator mode to deliver an epilogue that reinstates a sense of hope and survival. That to be yourself is, ultimately, a triumph. Similarly, this revival, in the recently opened Stage Door Theatre, above a Covent Garden pub, is also a triumph.

Tag Archives: Peter Rae

THE SIGNALMAN

★★★★

Drayton Arms Theatre

THE SIGNALMAN

Drayton Arms Theatre

★★★★

“a nerve-tingling and thought-provoking adaptation”

THE SIGNALMAN

Drayton Arms Theatre

Reviewed on 11th December 2025

by Luke Goscomb

Photography by Victoria Lari

THE SIGNALMAN

THE SIGNALMAN

THE SIGNALMAN

THE TAILOR-MADE MAN

★★★★

Stage Door Theatre

THE TAILOR-MADE MAN at the Stage Door Theatre

★★★★

“Pilcher magnificently captures Haines’ free spirit and rebelliousness”