The first thing that strikes the eye on entering the auditorium for this Original Theatre Company touring production is the handsome set design by Adrian Linford. Almost all of the atmosphere in this production, with a great deal of help from Chris Davey’s dramatic lighting, is created by the ramshackle cottage, torn open to reveal its interior and surrounded by bleak moorland and dramatic skies. It is against this creepy backdrop that the story penned by Ali Miles plays out, weaving together two tales of strained and dangerous relationships separated by the centuries.
Laura has brought her lover Suzanne to The Croft in order to spend some quality time with her, but she has failed to recognise just how hard Suzanne, very much the older of the two and with the responsibilities of a family back home, will find being out in a part of the Scottish Highlands so remote that there is no phone signal and limited access to home comforts. In a lengthy piece of plot-laying, Miles has the pair engage in extended bouts of bickering as we see them picking at the already fraying threads holding them together.
After rather too much of this soul-searching, the past begins to bleed into the present, and we are sucked back in time to the tenure of Enid in this same Croft, providing shelter for an outcast young mother Eileen who is reviled by the locals and under threat from their superstition.
Other than Liza Goddard as Enid, whose fright-wig deserves a credit and possibly a dressing room to itself, all the other lead players take on multiple roles, highlighting the parallels between the two interwoven storylines. Gracie Follows gives possibly the strongest and most believable performance in her reading of the over-optimistic Laura from the present day and the terrified fugitive Eileen from the past. Opposite her in the modern scenes is Caroline Harker as Suzanne, who in one of the complex plot’s more interesting turns reappears in an intermediate period as Laura’s Mother, shedding some light on the flaws in Laura and Suzanne’s partnership. Gray O’Brien, Simon Roberts and Russell Layton complete the cast in a collection of characters also spanning the time periods involved.
This is a revival of a production which stalled due to the pandemic of 2020, and Alastair Whatley has taken over the chair of the play’s original director Philip Franks. The main issue that the piece seems to be wrestling with is its designation as a chilling thriller, when in fact it is far more suited to being a complex psychological drama. This sense of identity crisis in the presentation results in the loss of dramatic weight in favour of trying to introduce elements of shock and suspense. Its efforts to induce a ‘Woman in Black’ style of creepiness (chairs that rock themselves and ominous rumblings in the soundtrack) detract from rather than adding to the actual suspense, which really emanates from the innate mystery of the relationships between the characters. This sense of the play trying to be something that it isn’t allows it to fall between two stools, as it never really achieves genuine thrills or shocks, and in constantly aiming for them misses the real drama in the narrative. In so doing it also potentially aims itself at the wrong audience demographic.
The Croft is a play that has a great deal more to offer than it achieves in this reading, which focuses too much on cashing in on the appeal of a thriller. If played more in the manner of a straight history-spanning drama (a genre in which Original Theatre Company have previously proved themselves successful) it could well achieve more gravitas, and more justification for the excellent cast and their obvious flare for characterisation.
The Croft closes its 2025 tour with this week’s appearance at Liverpool Playhouse.
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Gracie Follows and Caroline Harker in The Croft - photo by Manuel Harlan
Star rating: 3 stars
This review was originally written for publication by Good News Liverpool
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