Ghost Stories – Theatre Royal Norwich

Writer/Director: Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman

Ghost Stories has been running in various adaptations since 2010 and part of its success is down to the secrecy of the plot which the audience is asked to maintain. Without giving too much away then, the play opens with Dan Tetsell, as Professor Goodman, appearing on stage presenting a lecture on the paranormal and inviting the audience to examine their own thoughts on ghosts and unexplained events, the action then unfolds from here.

With most scenes presented as two handers at most, the cast are under serious scrutiny, fortunately they all deliver, with Tetsell’s Goodman striking the right balance between investigator and sceptic, Eddie Loodmer-Elliott convincing as a nervous, guilt ridden late teenager Simon Rifkind, and Clive Mantle a slightly clichéd but well observed Mike Priddle, deliberately losing any sympathy from the audience with his brash selfish manner. Best of the bunch though is David Cardy, quite believable as cynical night-watchman Tony wondering if he’s being laughed at or listened to, exhibiting some excellent comic timing in his conversations with his unseen colleague.

Billed as a scary evening the play actually veers more towards the shock end of the spectrum with a couple of genuine jump out of your seat shocks alongside some rather more telegraphed moments. The tension is built up carefully with odd noises such as dripping water, creaking boards and low moaning sounds played throughout the theatre before the play even starts. Combining this with some excellent lighting and sound on stage helps imbue the work with the sense of foreboding appropriate to the tales, however the desire to shock seems to override any desire to involve any slightly more psychological aspects which would increase the scare factor.

Set designer Jon Bausor has come up with an excellent use of the space, presenting realistic representations of anything from the night-watchman’s office to a car journey and combines this with some equally impressive lighting to keep the overbearing fear that something untoward is coming. Some of the special effects were a little corny, eliciting chuckles from the audience as opposed to the gasps of horror you imagine might have been hoped for, other effects however are quite brilliantly pulled off, no doubt reflecting the input here of writer Andy Nyman who has worked with stage illusionist Derren Brown. One or two of the jump shocks came about because of a sound effect and it’s fair to say the sound was very loud throughout, almost overbearingly so at one or two points.

Not really living up to its scary premise, this is still a very slick production excellently played for humour and horror by the cast, and was well received by tonight’s audience. It just has the feel of something that relies too much on well-worn horror tropes when perhaps a little more invention would elevate it beyond that, as character of Goodman alludes to it is most often our imagination that scares us not what we actually see .

Runs until 19^th April then on tour nationwide