Saddleworth Players have chosen a difficult, challenging play for their latest production. Haunting Julia, written in 1994, was a departure from Alan Ayckbourn’s usual repertoire of comedies involving dysfunctional families trying to get one over each other, or the neighbours. There are not many laughs in Haunting Julia, just the occasional barb of black humour which draws rather uneasy laughter from the audience.
“The production team at the Millgate always produce good sets, and this one is no exception.”
The play is set twelve years after the death by suicide of Julia Lukin, a phenomenally talented young musician who had some desperate psychological problems. Her father, who still cannot come to terms with her death, has turned her student bed-sitting room into a museum which the public can visit – for himself it is a shrine to her memory. The production team at the Millgate always produce good sets, and this one is no exception. The single bed with the teddy bear on the pillow might at first seem to be a child’s bedroom, but the roped-off barrier around the bed soon suggests something else – and this barrier becomes essential to the themes of the play.
The director’s note in the programme refers to ‘spine-tingling’ developments, and the recorded message before the play promises the audience ‘thrills and chills,’ but really the play is more complex and troubling than an exciting ghost story. It explores the reasons for Julia’s suicide, and the part that three different men may have had in leading to her death.
“This makes big demands on the cast – it is a long play that has to be carried by just three actors. Luckily all three are capable of meeting the challenge.”
This involves many tensions and confrontations between the men, who become increasingly disturbed by the revelations that emerge during both halves of the play. This makes big demands on the cast – it is a long play that has to be carried by just three actors. Luckily all three are capable of meeting the challenge. Alex Farkas as Julia’s father not only conveys his own pain but also helps us realise how oppressive he may have been as a parent to a gifted but unhappy daughter. Alex brought out the range of his character well – sometimes garrulous, opinionated and intolerant of disagreement, but also vulnerable and frightened that he may have been at fault. Peter Thompson gives a solid performance as Andy, Julia’s former student boyfriend who has tried to put her death behind him. He seems to be the voice of exasperated common sense, but by the end he is horrified by what he hears and experiences in this room. Vince Bowers has the trickiest role as Ken Chase, the volunteer psychic who, again, turns out to have had more to do with Julia than he is willing to reveal. Some early reviews of Ayckbourn’s 1994 production found this character unconvincing, but Vince developed the part well, letting us wonder whether Chase is a conman, a crank or a genuine visionary.
“. . . the special effects were very striking, and at the end they certainly lived up to the claims of being spine-chilling.”
Finally, the special effects were very striking, and at the end they certainly lived up to the claims of being spine-chilling. They made a dramatic finish to the production, and left us with a lot to wonder about.
John Rigby
Book now for Haunting Julia at the Millgate Art Centre from 16 – 23 November. Tickets £12/6 from TicketSource.
