I'm Blathering Now...

  “THE EVENTS that I here set down and to which I myself was for the most part a witness will for many seem beyond belief.” No, I’m not about to divulge more “tales of orchestration,” of “accidental” Tom encounters or secretive jaunts that “the others can’t know about!” Instead, these are the opening lines of Schiller’s one and only novel, The Man Who Sees Ghosts. Despite its title, the book is not a ghostly, supernatural tale, but more a tale of intrigue and political games. There are some supernatural elements to the story, but they do have a reason and an explanation. Whether serendipity led me to this book following recent eye-opening events, or it’s just the simple fact that it is a novel by Schiller and has a Venetian style drawing on the front which I was rather taken with, I will leave to you to decide! “At nine o’clock he died!” In the opening chapter of Schiller’s book, a mysterious figure known as The Armenian delivers a prophetic message to an unnamed Prince.

The Lady Vanishes is one of Hitchcock’s greatest movies; so, would a screen to stage adaption retain the magic of the various adaptations, or would it be a bridge too far bearing in mind nearly all the action takes place on a train? The hush of the auditorium is broken by the fanfare-like strains of Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries and this sets the tone for the rest of the production. As the curtain rises, we are transported back to Nazi Germany, soldiers and passengers throng a dreary railway station, swastika flags hanging down towards piles of suitcases. A stern Nazi officer barks in German at the confused and frustrated passengers who are waiting for their train to Zurich which has been delayed by an avalanche. On the platform we are introduced to the characters of the play, and Juliet Mills steals these first few moments as the lady in tweed, Miss Froy. Even though she is only sitting, calmly reading her newspaper and eating a sandwich, whilst the rest of the passenger