Buxton Pavilion Arts Centre 14/06/26

After a nice day selling our books at the Buxton for Books event, in the beautiful Assembly rooms at the Crescent, Buxton, we quickly changed, had a brew and set off back down into Buxton. The evening’s entertainment awaited us at the Pavilion Arts Centre and we were excited. 

Joe O’Byrne’s latest play to hit Buxton, ‘Rank’, is the fifth of his ‘Tales from Paradise Heights’ series of standalone yet interlinking stories set in and around the fictional northern seaside town of Paradise Heights. Some of the characters were returning from earlier plays, some new, however, the overall feel of the set was familiar to seasoned fans such as us – the inside of a gloomy, dull and faded office and waiting room at taxi cab company ‘Lucky Cabs’. 

Set on Halloween, and with a massive sea-borne storm approaching and threatening chaos, we are introduced quickly to taxi-drivers Nick, Malek and Chris, the owner Lisa, Corny, her brother, who is a washed-up ex-boxer – and later on Micky and Eddie, two gangsters – as well as two ‘visitors’ throughout the play, Belial and Shirley. The story then pans out over the next ninety minutes or so, taking us with it on a trail rolling ever downwards through bullying, the reverberations of long-past actions and consequences. 

The cast of seven actors, between them playing the nine parts, are mostly O’Byrne regulars, and what a superb job they did last night, with Joe, as he often does, taking a pivotal but smaller role, and giving the main story and some of the best lines to others. Donna Henry brings the feisty Lisa very believably to life, world-weary yet bubbly, playing off David Edward-Robertson’s Malek with wicked ripostes and some really great facial expressions. Their boss/worker, woman/man relationship gives us laughs and a touch of spice to briefly relieve the viewer from the main themes of the play (those being dark, dark and dark), acting out the most perfectly written slice of bathos! 

Edward-Robertson’s other character, Mickey, shows menace aplenty. 

Peter Slater shows up as Corny, and is a revelation. Dirty, withdrawn, and punch-drunk with no self-esteem or hope, Corny is played brilliantly by an actor who has shone each time we have seen him.

Josh Lonsdale, stepping in at short notice as both Chris and Eddie, plays his parts well and gives a believable portrayal of someone who just wants to get on with his job, look after his family and is being hindered by someone else’s actions. Andrew Yates plays Belial, a visitor from “somewhere else”, and brings nastiness and loathing oozing from every slick line of speech he has been given, whilst Abbie Richardson gives the angelic Shirley a whimsical air mixed with down-to-earth and heartfelt care for her covert mission. Joe himself, as Nick, sits mostly on the edge of the action, throwing in barbs and comments where fitting, and giving the others a majestic foil for their emotional outbursts. Together, the cast meld very well and expertly weave the story towards its conclusion.

Rank’s storyline seemed less frenetic to me than some of its predecessors’, and I thought that made it even more watchable. I could not take my eyes off the stage, and found myself forever wanting to know how it would end – and who would be left? 

There is, of course, a supernatural element to this play, as with most of Joe O’Byrne’s work, and returning viewers happily expect this. We like it! It reeks of old-style horror, but happening in a gritty, modern and very realistic setting. 

I enjoyed Rank immensely and urge anyone who hasn’t seen any of these plays to seek them out, and watch them. Search for ParadiseJoe on social media for further information.

Personally, I cannot wait for the next instalment from Paradise Heights – ‘The Haunting of Widow’s Leap Farm’ in 2027…

And as an aside, the first play we saw of Joe’s is returning to Buxton Opera House in October ’26, ‘The Haunting of Blaine Manor’. Tickets available from https://buxtonoperahouse.org.uk/events/the-haunting-of-blaine-manor-2026/

It is a terrific ghost story, well worth a watch!