Chills and charm in thriller

by John Greally
THEb" thing about The Others, now running at the Strand Theatre, is the ending. But the play is a ghost thriller, so the end can't be told.
Next best is the demanding duet work by Margaret Lockwood and Donald Houston, who carry practically the whole action between them. (There are three charming ghosts, but they are off stage most of the time, and bring little or nothing to the plot even when they appear.) Richard Lortz's plot, though it is ingenious, would have had more impact as a one-acter, for it fills out the two hours with several threadbare patches between the vivacious beginning and the glittering shock of the end.
Lockwood and Houston, as Claire and her husband Robert, turn up in a winter storm to have a look and a giggle at Claire's dilapidated stately home—only to find they are snowbound for a whole weekend, with hardly an provisions or heating.
Things start to go bump in the night. At first these seem to be only the product of Claire's guilt-ridden conscience. (Their little boy has been killed —their fault, she feels.) But then Robert too hears, and sees. Chill grows on chill, like icicles.
It's when the final thaw sets in that we get the worst chill of all: Robert is able to go out to look for their car down at the gate. and he finds . . Well, that's telling.
The part of Claire is like an oracle who spends all her time plying the goads in her breast but never quite drawing out articulate speech. Miss Lockwood achieves a lot in making her the centre of attention, even up against Donald Houston's ebullient Robert.
Nigel Patrick's direction is full of neat stagecraft—down to the detail of the bronze cherub which falls from a great height, missing Margaret Lockwood by inches. Designer Hutchinson Scott has given the play a luxurious Wuthering Heights setting to move in.
On the whole, good fun for a dark and stormy evening.