Your Turn to Clean The Stair, Tyldesley Little Theatre.

DARK secrets were revealed in a haunting performance of the psychological thriller Your Turn to Clean the Stair.

The hard working Tyldesley Little Theatre cast ensured that the production - directed by Ian Taylor, had everyone squirming in their seats in the disturbing thriller.

The play focuses on Lisa, played by an excellent Karen Ward, and her struggle to cope with life in an Edinburgh tenement building.

Lisa lives with her husband Brian, alias Mike Rimmer who is too wrapped up in his own life to notice his wife's misery.

And when Lisa goes to sleep, she begins to sleepwalk, and the line between dreams and reality becomes blurred as she battles with her inner demons.

She is joined on the tenement block by veteran TLT actress Margaret Speakes, played by Mrs Mackie, who is obsessed with keeping the stairs outside their

flats clean.

Hanna Nixon plays single mum Kay and Paul Beardsworth is Bobby, the loudmouth neighbour across the way, who everyone loves to hate as all their lives become tangled together - with disastrous consequences.

There are moments of dark humour which relieve the tension in the play with Paul Beardsworth and Margaret Speakes raising a few laughs from an

appreciative audience.

The stage is simple but effective and allows the audience to gaze onto their separate lives in their tenement homes.

The lighting added to the tense atmosphere, with an eerie red light illuminating over Lisa when she begins to sleepwalk and wrestle with the dark side of her mind.

The story reaches a crescendo near the end of the play, as the audience tried to separate fact from fiction. And a sparkling performance from all the TLT

cast made this was a compelling production.

Robert Johnson