by Philip Ayckbourn

Synopsis

Set present day and in the eighteen-eighties in The Old School House in Cranleigh, Surrey. TV psychic medium Trisha Watkins has invited Craig Phillips and Ollie Reeves to take part in Psychic Connections, her programme in which she ‘hypnotically regresses’ subjects to come face to face with their past selves.

Craig and Ollie have known each other in this present life and the relationship between them did not end well. Craig was in a relationship with Emily, Ollie’s younger sister, before Ollie and Craig got together. Emily then disappeared and Ollie has been feeling guilt ever since. She would dearly love to see her sister again. Needless to say, Ollie is none too pleased to find Trisha has also chosen Craig to take part in the programme with her, but Trisha insists they both have a connection to the house and to the events that took place there in the eighteen-eighties.

Trisha, at first, regresses them separately and they start to form their own interpretations of who they might’ve been in their previous lives. As this happens the action moves to the eighteen-eighties and we join headmaster Benjamin Stokes and wife Alice as well as Benjamin’s scheming mistress Martha Jennings, whose cruel plan is to ‘gaslight’ the vulnerable Alice in order to rid her from hers and Benjamin’s lives. Throughout the play the action oscillates between the two time periods. As more discoveries are made about their pasts, their present situation becomes more tense, a tension mainly fuelled by the volatile and potentially violent Craig. When it’s suspected that Emily could’ve actually been the persecuted Alice, Craig and Ollie suspect that she also might be hiding somewhere in the house and working in cahoots with Trisha. But Trisha won’t say.

Events move to a dramatic climax when the eighteen-eighties and the present coincide. We also discover that Trisha herself is no detached onlooker but is just as much involved in the house’s disturbing past as the others.

A blend of ghost story, detective and thriller, it’s a play that keeps the audience guessing to the end as to what’s real… and what isn’t.

Characters

(2m, 4f)

• Trisha Watkins - 40s
• Emily Reeves/Alice Stokes - mid to late 20s
• Ollie Reeves - 30s
• Craig Phillips - 30s
• Martha Jennings - 30s
• Benjamin Stokes - late 30s