This famous short story has been adapted for the stage and is directed by Jim Ivers, with Mick Keogh and Niall Moore playing the principal parts.

The evening show will include rehearsed readings from the Dickens canon, including all your favourite characters such as Scrooge, Micawber, Magwitch, Miss Havisham, Bill Sikes and Uriah Heep.

Returning from France with his secret mistress, the actress Ellen Ternan, Charles Dickens was involved in the terrible Staplehurst train crash in 1865, when a bridge over a viaduct collapsed and hundreds of passengers plunged into the water and lost their lives.

Dickens was widely praised for his role in ministering to the injured and dying.

Dickens, however, horrified rescuers by climbing back into a carriage which hung precariously over the river, risking his life to recover his manuscript for Our Mutual Friend.

Dickens was never the same after the incident and it haunted him for the rest of his days.

The Signalman may have been an attempt by the author to exorcise his demons.

Tavistock Arts is a Leinster based, theatre production company, founded by Jim Ivers in Newbridge.

The company features an ensemble of actors and technicians who are encouraged to contribute creatively throughout the process of bringing theatre from page to stage.

Contrary to the current popularity of focus on body and movement, Tavistock Arts unashamedly advocates a text-based theatre.

The event runs from January 27 – 30 at 8pm, with matinees on January 28 – 29 at 1pm at The Liffey Studio, 1 Main Street, Newbridge.

Tickets are n12/n10 for evening shows and n6 for lunchtime shows. To book call 045 446612, 087 2627155 or email info@crookedhouse.ie.