Writer: HG Wells
Adaptor: Charlotte Ball
The beauty and spirit of the Fringe has always been the small-scale unexpected delights you can stumble across as you walk down the Royal Mile and surrounding streets. The Red Room, performed by Ellie Ball and adapted from an HG Wells short story by her sister Charlotte is a show that shows that this element of the Fringe is still alive and well.
Ball uses the intimate space of The Clover Studio to superb effect, taking advantage of the closeness of the audience to the stage and to herself, drawing her audience in to the story of Lorraine Castle, a building not a person.
The story is a classic haunted house tale as the sceptical narrator ignores the warnings of three aged servants and commits to spending an evening in the room, at the end of the long corridor at the top of the spiral staircase, that has already seen at least three people meet their end.
The attention to detail in the production and the performance are clear from the start as the words and movements of the servants are brought to life in a way that makes them instantly recognisable without tipping over into cliché.
The single stage light shrouds the room in a semi-darkness to suggest a place that few people have ventured into, and the torch-style light that Ball carries with her is used to draw the audience into the room with her as it shrinks the already small room even further bringing out the darkness and claustrophobia that the narrator is working through.
Ball’s pacing is excellent, never rushing the story but also never slowing it down too much, letting every word and intonation land perfectly as she reacts to the things she can hear and see and the thoughts and fears that fill the gaps in her knowledge.
As with any ghost story, there is always the risk that the ending will be an anti-climax with a mystery that can’t be explained or a solution that stretches credibility, but the adaptation manages to avoid this by drawing on the nature of fear itself and the power of the imagination.
It’s a fitting end to a show that demonstrates the power of storytelling and reminds us that you don’t need a large budget or a large space to create a compelling story.
Runs until 17 August 2024 | Image: Contributed
