Review: The Signalman

Based on Charles Dickens’ experience with a devastating train crash, The Signalman focuses on the eponymous character coming to terms with one of his own. A sparsely dressed set allows Tim Larkfield to take centre stage, as he relays the signalman’s troubles to an unseen, unnamed spectator.

Larkfield’s characterisation of the disturbed railway worker is compelling and dynamic, starting off bewildered but determined and, over the course of 50 minutes, descending into terror and madness. Frequently sighting a spirit on the tracks, eyes covered and hand raised in warning, the signalman knows it’s warning him of something – but what? After a second tragedy happens on his watch, self-blame sets in, and no amount of singing to himself or sitting quietly watching the skies can assuage it.

This version of The Signalman, adapted by Martin Malcolm and directed by Sam Raffal, hones in on issues like post-traumatic stress disorder and unaccountable guilt, asking where can these sit alongside self-hatred for having squandered a promising future. This signalman is played with a suffusion of desperate sadness, both for the life he could have had, and the one he is living. Larkfield’s depiction of a man in crisis, as well as ghostly sound design and lighting, come together in a performance that is eerie and disturbing.