The Judge's House

based on the short story by Bram Stoker

Adapted by John Goodrum, performed by The Rumpus Theatre Company.

Wimbledon Studio Theatre, 2004.

I thoroughly enjoyed this production. I believe this is the first time that this Bram Stoker short story has been adapted for the stage. If I am wrong, then it is definitely rare to find The Judge’s House being performed.

John Goodrum, who adapted the story for the stage, was involved with the founding of The Rumpus Theatre Company. Their first production was one of his plays. Ten years on, and they are still successfully presenting his plays.

I had first encountered this particular story only months before, as a result of attending The Dracula Society’s long weekend away in Taunton and Exeter. We all had copies of the story to read during the weekend. Taunton had been included in the trip due to its associations with the Bloody Assizes, which were presided over by the "Hanging Judge". Christopher Lee starred in a film based on those events.

The "Hanging Judge" was an inspiration for Stoker’s story, in which the Judge has been dead for some 50 years.

Just two actors are required for the tale, Malcolm Malcolmson, and the landlady with whom he stays until he rents The Judge’s House, and who then continues to keep an eye on him. There are a small number of other characters in the story, but these are handled either by recounting the events instead of enacting them, or, in a touch I particularly liked, the landlady - who is narrating the tale to us as well as participating - tells us she will take on the part of a given character, and proceeds to do so.

The character of the landlady has been slightly changed in order to put her in the place of a narrator, and fleshed out so that we know a bit more about her than we do from the original story. In particular, she is rather keen on her amateur dramatics, and this encourages her to play the other characters as necessary. Simple props are used to help us identify which additional character she is playing: a shawl, a querulous voice, and a bit of a stoop for one lady; a hat and a somewhat more “posh” voice for another. I found it very effective, and part of what endeared me to the production.

The point of the story is not the interaction between Mr. Malcolmson and the landlady, but Mr. Malcolmson’s dawning realization of the evil presence within the house he is renting, and his ultimate demise. Having moved into the house, he finds it apparently infested by rats, and then he sees the king rat. A few special effects were employed for this: a couple of pairs of LEDs for red rats’ eyes behind apparent walls, which flickered on and off just a few times (so as not to overdo it); a single “rat on a rope” which “ran” up a wall to lend impact to one scene; and the simple turning of a chair so that its back faced us while Mr Malcolmson addressed the rat sitting upon it, which we could not see.

The tension did build as the story went on, due entirely to the acting prowess of Laura Hayes and David Martin. Wimbledon Studio Theatre is one of those tiny theatres which hold maybe fifty people, and has a very small area for a stage, so that a company cannot use large stage props and furniture. Everything is down to the actors and the few props they can fit in. Thinking I knew the story, I was not surprised when Mr. Malcolmson eventually did succumb to the suggestiveness of the Judge’s malevolent presence, and hanged himself. But did he? John Goodrun’s adaptation has one last change for us, a twist which I definitely approved of: the landlady was a descendent of the Judge, and was strongly influenced by his deeds - did she, in fact, murder Mr Malcolmson?

Fly back to the top!

If the Rumpus Theatre Company ever choose to tour with this production again, do go and see it!

- Blackie