Lauren Crisp is a book editor, writer and keen follower of arts and culture. She reviews theatre and cultural events in and around the district in her spare time.

You can contact Lauren on laurencrispwriter@gmail.com.

Based on a novel by Tynesider Robert Westall, the stage adaptation of The Watch House, presented by theatre company Papatango, is rooted in the history and mysteries of the North-East coast.

Heroine Anne (Aoife Kennan) has been dropped off to stay with old family friends Arthur (Donald McBride) and Prudie (Catherine Dryden) in North Tyneside, while her parents finalise their divorce all the way down in London.

She simmers with teenage angst: that is, until she discovers there is more to this place than she realised.

The affable Arthur plays guardian to an all-but-abandoned coastguard station known as the Watch House (based on a real place), a site drowning in maritime history and overflowing with oddities and treasures.

As Arthur begins to share the history of the station with Anne – tales of shipwrecks and ghosts – her initial apathy turns to morbid fascination. And soon, as lights begin to flicker and messages appear in dust, she endeavours to lay spirits to rest.

Performed in Leeds Playhouse’s small studio theatre, the set features a backlit skyline of the local coast and is occupied only by a wooden box on wheels, which transforms the imagined space from cottage to church hall to graveyard, as well as the eerie Watch House.

A chilling atmosphere builds, underpinned by effective sound and lighting; I especially enjoyed the haunting shanties played between scenes.

Kennan makes for a somewhat implausible teenager, a jarring effect for a story so centred on the trials of adolescence. Still, the three cast members bounce off each other nicely. McBride is especially engaging as Arthur, with a naturalism about his depiction which teems with regional dialect and humour.

Dryden switches between four different parts, playing not just Prudie, but Anne’s mother, a priest and a teenage boy with such dexterity (and speedy costume changes) that it is not at all discombobulating.

I’m all for a spooky tale as the nights draw in, but this play’s real charm lies in its sense of place: the North East is this play’s very fabric. The result is an evocative spectacle of regional charm, maritime history and folkloric mystery.

The Watch House is on at Leeds Playhouse until Monday, November 11 and is touring until Saturday, November 16.