Andrew Kay goes behind the scenes on going ‘behind the scenes’

I was reading the new Peter James novel, Not Dead Yet, and it made me realise just how lucky I have been. Lucky, of course, that I am not dead at the hands of one of his murderous characters; lucky that I am not, for the most part, held in the same disdain as his journalist Spinella too.

Parts of the new book take his villain and his hero into the major dome of the Royal Pavilion. It’s a space that is now closed to visitors, but one that I was lucky enough to be taken to a few years ago. A spooky place, neglected but with an eerie history. The walls are covered in the names of hospitalised soldiers from the time when the Pavilion was seconded as a military hospital. Perhaps their ghosts walk the corridors late at night.

This job certainly has its privileges, and I have been behind the scenes in many places that the general public are not allowed to go. Including the dark recesses behind the opulent proscenium arch of the Theatre Royal Brighton.

Now the Theatre Royal has come up with a splendid idea to fill the dark month when they do their annual updates and running repairs. There have been three events that take you, the public, backstage so far but there is still time to catch the final one.

The theatre does have its own famous ghost, the Lady in Grey. By all accounts she is a placid creature, not a scary one, and some think that she may be the ghost of Sarah Bernhardt, the great French actress who appeared at the theatre back in 1894, but it is more likely that it is the ghost of the theatre’s most famous manager, Mrs Nye Chart, the legendary woman who ran the theatre from 1876 to 1892.

There are other ghosts too, a man and two children, spooky stuff and all the more so when staged in the darkened theatre.

Apparitions (Friday 17 and Saturday 18 August) promises to be this – an empty theatre, out of hours and after dark, full of dark shadows, unexpected noises, and fleeting glimpses of theatre ghosts – or is that just your imagination? An atmospheric experience of stories and suggestion that will bring you out in goosebumps.
I can’t wait!

Please book in advance at the Theatre Royal Brighton box office, New Road or 0844 871 7650, www.ambassadortickets.com/brighton