GHOST STORIES

David Cardy

What is it that makes so many of us enjoy being scared? By that I don’t me horrified, I have never been a fan of the shock or schlock horror genre. I don’t want to be repulsed, far from it. But from an early age there has been an unfathomable love of being scared witless by what is usually a fiction, sitting at a Cub Scout campfire being told about an escaped inmate from a lunatic asylum banging on the roof, brandishing perhaps a severed head, of two unsuspecting lovers in a car late at night. You know the stuff.

Ghost Stories as a piece of theatre is cut from the very same cloth. Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman’s cleverly constructed piece of theatre is to start a slow burn of impending doom and creeping terror. The inch by inch threat heightened by a heart stopping soundscape, creaking and slamming into our minds with seat shaking power. The whole is gloomily lit forcing our minds to penetrate the dark, teasing our brains to anticipate what lies ahead…

Clive Mantle

And that’s all I am prepared, or should I say, asked to reveal. I have spent thirty odd years reviewing theatre and over those three decades I have despaired at the number of reviews that I have read that reveal the whole caboodle, lock stock and smoking barrel. I have tried never to do that, to leave any reader, should they choose to go, open to enjoying the drama afresh. So thank you Mr D and Mr N for reminding us all, critics and audience alike, to keep schtum!

So no spoilers except to say that this whole scary confection is beautifullly designed by James Farncombe and Scott Penrose’s special effects are captivating and cleverly handled. The whole piece is bound up in classic practical stage craft and not dependent on modern gimmcrack techno wizardry, and it’s all the better for that.

At times the script may seem a little wordy and long but intentionally so, heightening that sense of what might happen next, and after all, we as audience know that some time soon we are in for a hair raising shock.

I liked it and especially liked the performances of Lucas Albion as Professor Goodman, David Cardy as Tony Matthews, Clive Mantle as Mike Priddle and Andy Room as Simon Rifkind, all totally invested in creating an evening of ghostly entertainment.

That’s all you’re getting from me, joining in the suspense, but for lovers of the genre this is a must see.

Andrew Kay

8 July

Theatre Royal Brighton

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