Cast and effects create spine-tingling sensation of invisible menace

The Shadow in the Mirror

The Mill at Sonning

Friday, September 26

THE idea of a mirror containing another presence rather than just a reflection of ourselves has been around for quite a while but the Mill at Sonning’s latest production takes it further than ever before.

It's a spooky notion to begin with but add in malice, metaphysical suggestion and the threat of the guillotine and you have a recipe for suspense which can be breathtaking at times.

The Shadow in the Mirror is an adaptation of a Gerald Durrell story and it’s quite thrilling.

Adaptor and director Dugald Bruce-Lockhart handles a dark and threatening set with alarming and very effective sound effects to wring out the maximum amount of spine tingle — I was generating enough electricity in my back to power the house lights.

There is an athleticism to this show with the cast jumping about the multi-level set to keep what is at heart an expositional piece constantly on the move. The direction is imaginative and keeps the audience locked into what could be a wordy piece. But it’s the acting which makes this show come to life: foremost among them is Nick Waring playing the central character, Peter Letting, a 19th century bookseller who is persuaded to go to an empty mansion in France to catalogue the library.

But there are more than books in the library, there are also endless mirrors and they contain something which you wouldn’t want to meet in the middle of a summer’s day in Henley, let alone at a remote chateau cut off from everyone.

Nick Waring brings energy, commitment and stamina to this part and forces us to listen and watch. He is magnetic. There’s one sequence in the second act where he spends maybe 15 minutes describing his horrors in the library. It’s virtually a monologue and a tour de force of acting with pace and animation going a long way to covering his account of what happened, rather than seeing it for ourselves.

Yet that is the secret to this play, we can’t ever see the apparition, we have to take Letting’s word for it and his recollection is a frenzied tale which might resemble an LSD trip.

The play operates on two levels: a straight suspense yarn and a questioning mental health piece; did he really see this or was it just his paranoia which led him to murder someone?

Either way works and stays with you long after the final scream.

The Shadow in the Mirror runs until Saturday, November 8.

Mike Rowbottom