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Dan Tetsell as Prof Philip Goodman, expert on ghosts and things that go bump in the night. Pictures: Hugo Glendinning Ghost Stories The Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham **** Admit it. Most people enjoy being scared to . . . well, perhaps not quite to death, but certainly out of their wits, as long as they are warm and settled in a comfortable seat and any danger is merely imaginary . . . imagination being the key. It is what makes horror films popular, keeps ghost trains running and keeps tills jangling at Halloween. Ghost Stories feeds on that love of being, safely, petrified by the unknown, the world beyond our own, with three . . . and a half ghost stories to send seismic shivers down the spine. The audience shuffle in to a darkened theatre with an unnerving bass rumble in the background with a dim stage dominated by a well-worn faded safety curtain. We have seen safety curtains before, they are obligatory under fire regulations in most traditional proscenium arched theatres, but somehow this curtain implies it is keeping us safe from something . . . beyond fire. We open with almost a throwback to Victorian times when a celebrated figure could fill a theatre for a lecture. In this case it is Dr. Philip Goodman, a Professor of Parapsychology delivering a lecture on ghost stories. Dan Tetsell gives us a professor who has a scientists’ scepticism and brings an analytical mind to ghost stories and folk tales through the ages, illustrating his lecture with slides and moments of humour.
David Cardy as the night watchman, Tony Matthews In truth you actually do learn a few things, who knew for example that www.scienceofghosts.com existed, collecting sent in pictures with unexplained ghostly images for comment, or that PT Barnham had fake half man half creature exhibits. It seemed, by a show of hands, more than half the audience believed in ghosts, or at least some sort of spirit beings, while a fair number had also experienced unexplainable events, so the prof was already preaching to the converted, not that he believed in ghosts himself, mind. He studies them, or at least reports of them, looking for rational explanations. He illustrates that with three interviews which become three scenes renacted behind that safety curtain, there is the night watchman, Tony Matthews, a shoe-in for East Enders, played by David Cardy, passing the small hours in an abandoned department store with its discarded displays and mannequins. And we had the teenager, Simon Rifkind, played by Eddie Loodmer-Elliott, driving home in the early hours in dad’s car from a party, the last before everyone went to uni. An accident then a breakdown later he is stuck in the middle of nowhere and . . . Finally we have Mike Priddle, played by Clive Mantle. Mike is a successful city trader, no doubt wearing wide red braces beneath his expensively tailored suit. His conversation is littered with constant phone calls about deals and killings. His wife, no doubt the trophy sort, is pregnant, in her third trimester, and after some concern is being kept in hospital. It leaves Mike free to concentrate on moneymaking deals as he wanders around the empty house and into the waiting nursery . . . Each event has a logical explanation . . . at least the prof thinks so, but then where does Desmond Callahan fit in, the lad sent down the tunnel to look for the tenth number, the one that didn’t exist. And is the prof merely a narrator or is he something more . . . so many questions . . . so few answers . . .
Clive Mantle as city trader Mike Priddle The mind has an amazing propensity to imagine, given half a chance, it creates special effects that no amount of CGI and AI can compete with and this production feeds that imagination quite brilliantly. Nick Manning’s sound is understated. Low throbbing much of the time, a disconcerting rumble in the background, with explosions of noise to bring shock and fear to Scott Penrose’s special effects all aided by James Farncombe’s skilful lighting. The trick that makes it all work is to make it all low key. The lighting is dim, the special effects simple and, without giving the game away, apparitions are never highlighted or seen for more than a fraction of a second. There is enough exposed for the imagination to take over and fill in its own detail. Jon Bausor’s sets expertly and quickly create some five completely different scenarios behind the protection of that ever present safety curtain in what is, all combined, technically an extremely competent and clever piece of stagecraft in all its aspects. Written by Jeremy Dyson, the co-creator of League of Gentlemen and Andy Nyman who is an actor, magician, singer, director, writer . . . the pair also directed the original production along with Sean Holmes with Nyman also playing Prof Goodman. Ghost Stories, is just that, old fashioned, goose pimples and hairs standing up on the back of the neck tales of ghosts and unexplained events, there is no horror, no heads revolving or Freddy Kruger popping out of the wings, but still enough jeopardy to make you jump, enough to fulfil that need to be scared out of your wits and with the bonus of a twist to make you question if anything at all was real. The apparitions will be haunting the Alex to 24-05-25. Roger Clarke 20-05-25 The Alex has its own resident ghosts, incidentally, such as Leon Salberg, the former owner who died in his office in 1938, then there is Dick, a once stage manger dangling his keys, the Grey Lady, who is a mystery to all and the bloke in a top hat with a military bearing all seen or felt from time to time. Remember to say hello when you go to a show! Ghost Stories is The Grand, Wolverhampton 1-5 July and at Malvern Theatres 22-26 July |
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