David Cardy in Ghost Stories (photo by Hugo Glendinning)
Ghost Stories, The Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham.
Everyone likes a good scare. Don’t they?
There are scares aplenty here in this wonderful piece of theatre written by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman.
The title is Ghost Stories – and that’s what we get. Although it’s much more than that as it is so multi-layered and so, so clever.
We are joined by Professor Goodman (played perfectly by Dan Tetsell) who presents a talk on the supernatural. This feels like a real talk rather than a play and makes the character feel like a real professor (there is even some audience involvement). We are therefore lulled into a false sense of security. He tells us what we sometimes experience as “paranormal” can often be explained as something more “normal” and our minds can often play tricks. However, he goes on to say that there are three cases he has come across that he has not been able to explain away. We are then presented with them one by one and we realise we were foolish to have been lulled!
The first is from a nightwatchman (David Cardy). He tells us of a night in an isolated building that used to be a sanitarium. The second is from a student (Eddie Loodmer-Elliott) who tells us of a night where his car breaks down at night in the middle of nowhere. The third is from a high-end businessman (Clive Mantle) who tells us of how he believes the new nursery in his home has a poltergeist.
All three of these tales of terror are fantastic (largely down to all three actors who play them out so well).
However, that’s not all… but I’m afraid it’s as far as I can go as we’re told not to give spoilers. Suffice to say though there are many more twists and turns.
This show is not for the faint hearted. There were MANY screams from the audience (who then took quite a while to recover!). This play was adapted into a film (starring Nyman himself) but you can’t beat sitting in a theatre where everyone experiences it together – live – where we can all scream (and then laugh) together.
An absolute thrill ride.
5 stars. A masterclass in suspense.
