CASTING radio heavyweights Roger Phillips and Jimmy McCracken alongside Scouse starlet Pauline Daniels raises expectations somewhat.

But the Actors Studio – which Daniels owns and manages – seems to have got away with it.

Phil Pinnington’s new play, The Night of January 12, we’re told, is a mystery that turns into a ghost story, and finally a “tale of terror”.

Local newspaper the Hampswick Gazette stumbles across a story about mysterious deaths in the same room, of the same house – Ivy House – decades apart on January 12th.

For a stunt, they decide to put a reader into the house on the upcoming anniversary to report back on any spooky goings-on.

Phillips, as local historian Jim Boyle – who also “does a bit of broadcasting” on local radio – cuts a dash not dissimilar to Brian Blessed, with a resonant baritone that pierces the gloom.

McCracken, meanwhile, plays news editor Ed Broughton. Boyle says newsman has to become inhuman to succeed, and McCracken certainly exudes a healthy cynicism and bloodthirst.

Cub reporter Steve Johnson, played by relative newcomer Keir Howard, is the young foil to Broughton’s elder newshound. Howard manages to switch effortlessly from eager newbie to hesitant nay-sayer.

Daniels, who also directed the play, unsurprisingly delivers the most convincing performance of the evening as the mysterious source of the original Ivy House tale.

For those unfamiliar with the studio, both stage and auditorium are tiny, with little room for elaborate sets. Daniels’s direction uses what little space there is well, and the minimalist scenery and props allow the action to flow.

Indeed, as the tension mounts, with Boyle alone in the haunted room, an ever fading light plot heightened the tension and pulled the audience into the darkness. The lengthy musical interludes between scenes, however, unnecessarily allowed the tempo to slip.

BEN SCHOFIELD