Be prepared to scream out loud and jump out of your seat more than once for this creepy, frightening show!
The creepy atmosphere starts to build before we take our seats, the ushers tell us that once we are in we shouldn’t leave, otherwise we will not be allowed back into the theatre. Intriguing. I hope my bladder holds.
Then, as we are taking our seats, there is just a sense of dread and this is from the audience, we’ve been told it’s scary so the anticipation is making us creeped out and the howling wind noises being played around the auditorium isn’t helping.
With no warning, there is a loud scream, a noise and we are plunged into blackness – this is the first time the audience jumps, screams and then there are giggles of relief and gasps as the breath we didn’t realise we were holding is exhaled.
We are greeted by Professor Goodman, he is a parapsychologist who studies the paranormal and psychic phenomena and is fascinated by ghost stories. He’s giving us a talk on the history of ghost stories and how the stories of spirits and fantastical beings have been passed down through generations. It is actually really interesting.
He also tells us why he doesn’t believe in ghosts as the brain can interpret things in a way that we can understand. However, Professor Goodman tells us that with all his years of research there have only been three stories that he has not been able to explain…
These three stories are played out to us. All three are very different. All three stories are creepy and scary. All three stories made the audience jump, scream, shriek or yelp out loud.
In the spirit of no spoilers, I am not going to tell you about these stories – it is one of those plays where the audience is in a global agreement of not giving anything away so the next audience member can enjoy the frights with maximum scare factor!
What I can tell you is that not only were the stories pretty spooky in their own right, what made them so scary and impactful were the theatrics, the props, the real theatre magic which created these illusions. The set designs were so clever, being able to have such separate scenes on the stage with minimal disruption, but also support the suspense and the scary aspects of the stories. The sound and lighting played a huge role in adding to the fright factor and with precision timing from everyone involved, they all pulled it off. I’m sure at one point the whole auditorium was purposely set to chilly temperature… or was it?
The cast were brilliant, and with a huge list of film and TV credits between them, they added to the drama with their characterisations. Written by Jeremy Dyson from The League of Gentlemen, and Andy Nyman, who collaborates with Derren Brown, Ghost Stories is a theatre play worth getting a fright for!
Cast
Dan Tetsell as Professor Goodman
David Cardy as Tony Matthews
Eddie Loodmer-Elliott as Simon Riffkind
Clive Mantle as Mike Priddle
Don’t forget to purchase a souvenir programme for more scary history!
Here is the video review on YouTube.
Here is the YouTube Short.