Ted Johns brings 'Aylmer's Ghost' to Lucknow's HAWK Theatre

BY SCOTT STEPHENSON

On Oct. 9, roaming rural thespian Ted Johns brought the penultimate performance of the third instalment of his beloved “Barn Trilogy”, Aylmer’s Ghost, to the HAWK Theatre at Lucknow Town Hall. 

 

As the audience assembled in Lucknow, the demand for seats quickly became apparent, and theatre volunteers fetched another row of chairs in short order. 

 

The evening’s performance of Johns’ stirring one-man show was initially intended to be the final stop for this touring production, but steadily growing interest spurred him to add an encore performance later on, in Bayfield.

 

While some of the earlier performances of Aylmer’s Ghost occurred in September, this show sure was a fitting one to take in during the spookiest month of the year. There are just certain stories that belong to October. While Johns’ performance ran more often than not in a humorous vein, it also had moments that crept in the dark recesses of the mind. Humorous, but also haunting. While not supernatural, Aylmer’s tale was, at times, macabre - full of everyday death and madness most ordinary. A heady mix, but one Johns, and Aylmer, handled with ease. There were no theatrical tricks - just a man, in a chair, talking. But sometimes, that’s all you need.

 

What becomes of an old farmer who feels the work has finally moved on without him? When there is no longer something to mend, feed, plant, harvest or tend? These are the questions Johns’ Aylmer has been asking since 1977. Now, in his final days, the seasons turn, but not for him. 

 

The spectres found in Aylmer’s Ghost are not monsters lurking beyond the edge of the lamplight - they are the ghosts of the things we used to know. The things we used to laugh about, when there were still people to laugh about. The things that don’t get said anymore, because there’s no one left to tell them to.  

 

While Aylmer’s final chapter may not have offered a lot of answers for the fictional farmer we first met in He Won’t Come in from the Barn, one thing’s for certain - the old goat would be proud to learn he’s still able to fill a theatre, after all these years.