Sanctuary & Other Ghost Stories by Tom Kasey

Author:Tom Kasey [Kasey, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Endeavour Press Ltd.
Published: 2012-03-18T04:30:00+00:00

The Elphington Players’ production of With Malice Aforethought, written, produced and directed by James Teague, a country solicitor whose somewhat staid and business-like appearance concealed the heart and soul of a true Thespian, was clearly never destined to make it to the West End.

Nevertheless, it was confidently expected to be a rousing success in the village hall – the Players had always enjoyed the enthusiastic support of the local community for all their productions – for Malice was by far their most ambitious project to date. Very expensive and comprehensive sets (by the usual Players’ standards) had been prepared, the sound effects painstakingly synchronized with the lighting, especially for the last and most dramatic scene, and a positive fortune spent on costumes. The play was a period piece, a murder mystery with a supernatural twist, set entirely in a large country house in the mid-1800s, and the script had been drafted, redrafted, drafted again and redrafted again until it was as sharp and poignant as James Teague could make it.

The only flaw, if there was one, was the constant and bitter rivalry between old Robert Theobalds and Daniel Park.

In fairness to Daniel, Robert was rather on his last legs as a performer, having reached the age of 83, but he had been the mainstay of the Players for longer than anyone really cared to remember. Putting on any production without giving Robert Theobalds a part was almost unthinkable. Even if he was now a little slow, that was hardly a sufficient reason to pension him off completely.

Though these days he only played small parts – his casting as the ghost of the murdered uncle in Malice was typical – he had the somewhat tiresome habit of drawing on his decades of experience on the amateur stage to advise the younger and less experienced performers. And that, of course, was exactly the wrong thing to do as far as Daniel Park was concerned.

Daniel had aspirations towards the professional stage, and had made it clear from the first that he regarded the Elphington Players as a mere steeping stone in his glorious future career, an attitude which had in no way endeared him to the other performers. He and Robert had taken an instant dislike to each other upon first meeting, and their relationship had consistently and markedly deteriorated since then.

The friction between the two men was a constant and niggling source of irritation, and James Teague had privately resolved that Malice was going to be the last production in which both men would appear. One or the other of them was going to have to go.

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