JADAR

★★★★☆

Ghost Stories is a soul-stirring piece of theatre that grabbed my attention and held onto it. The writers, Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman, are a perfectly paired duo that have explored horror theatre throughout their careers. They paired themselves with Sean Holmes to delicately direct this piece of terrifying theatre.

The show itself is a highly symbolic and hyper-realistic portrayal of the power of fear, and how our mind warps what we perceive. This piece was technically and visually flawless, providing a true marvel of design, sound and technical theatre. There were a handful of jaw-dropping stunts, visuals and tricks still reeling over. This metatheatrical story gave us three classic tales, bridged together by a professor of parapsychology, exploring how the brain interprets the supernatural. It is not often you see a piece of horror theatre that is strongly performed and interpreted, widely available, genuinely terrifying, and includes themes like this one.

There must be a massive congratulations to the design team. This show delivered a seamless production that was slick, daring, horrifying and one-of-a-kind. It is clear that a lot of time, research and energy went into the sound to provide a truly eerie rise in emotion, from escalating scales that would not let your nervous system slow down to voices that seemed to travel from the stage and tiptoe across the audience, the sound design was spectacular.

Nick Manning delivered a nearly flawless sound design. Jon Bausor’s (set and costume designer) sets are simultaneously realistic and mystifying.

The lighting was utterly brilliant, from the displays of backlit characters, flashlights to temporarily disable audience members, pitch-black moments in the audience, to flashing lights that made monsters seem ten times scarier. Lighting designer James Farncombe is a mastermind; his knowledge of how our brains respond to lighting both emotionally and practically is a true rarity in modern theatre. Special effects came from Scott Penrose, who pushed the boundaries of what is possible in live theatre.

I have never seen technical brilliance like this production had, from scenes changing in the blink of an eye to completely immersive and invasive sets and props that provided slickly executed tricks. This piece of theatre can make any audience member marvel at what is possible in a live atmosphere; it truly made me feel as if I had seen real magic. 

My issue with this piece is to do with the narrative structure and development of the writing. The writing is curt in its discussions of women, only mentioning them briefly as a daughter, showcasing them in depictions in porn, as a mother and a “trophy wife.” This followed a classic horror trope, where women act as the props in a narrative, as either victim or perpetrator of violence. Along the same line, I believe the narrative choice to include characters that openly maintain racist and sexist rhetoric can represent laziness in script writing. If the intention for emotional and mental variety in a character was desired, these themes can be explored in other ways. Making characters encapsulate an inclusive viewpoint is more fascinating than repetition of the female body being shown as “grotesque,” “sexy,” and “otherworldly.”

On the other hand, it became clear throughout the production of the impact of our unreliable narrator, and these depictions could be chalked up to his personal viewpoint, another theme constantly arising throughout the show – what viewpoint are we receiving and why should we trust it? Despite this potential explanation, I often found myself questioning the necessity of slurs on stage.

When any person attends the theatre, they must allow themselves to be swept into the action while the story must provide a suspension of disbelief. In Ghost Stories, there is a deescalation in this story that is hyperbolic and pushes the limits to what audience members will believe. As the production continued, there were moments that felt forced and sudden in the story itself. Personally, I began to feel uncomfortable and felt the need to awkwardly laugh, completely eradicating my connection to the story at times and making it harder to interact with and believe the narrative.

The ending of this production is frantic and thrilling but the writing sometimes feels messy, attempting to tie together a variety of topics, stories and guilt-ridden nature. The play, though about ghosts, is really an exploration of the feeling of sonder; how every individual has their own world and interpretation of it.

The ending put a bow on each story by tying together every loose end, but to do this, the story erases any lingering feeling of skepticism present in the paranormal, leaving audience members feeling the story, both mentally and emotionally, is complete. The ending allows audiences to leave feeling like this story stays in the theatre, however, I would argue that it would also be impactful to do the opposite. The unnerving feeling of the supernatural lies in our lack of explanation, our brains want to make sense of everything and when we cannot, anxiety begins to fester. I would be curious to see a production that lets our feelings of the unknown linger, hanging above us without an ending, just our feelings.

The cast is brilliant. One particularly harrowing performance came from Clive Mantle as Mike Priddle. His devotion to his narrative and connection to our narrator was chilling. His tone, demeanor, body language and grasp on emotion, while he explored his memory, was excellent. Professor Goodman was brilliantly portrayed by Dan Tetsell, and he had an extremely difficult emotional journey, his character jumping from knowledgeable researcher to a deeply emotional monologue with hard-hitting emotional displays. The cast is rounded off with David Cardy as Tony Matthews and Eddie Loodmer-Elliott as Simon Rifkind.

This play is a modern marvel at what can be done live on stage; it is a true rarity of theatre, a modern experience that every person should have the opportunity to see. Unfortunately, there were moments with the script that felt structurally forced and underdeveloped, however, the show caters to fans of horror, fans of theatre, and fans of storytelling and folklore. It has the potential to be truly life-changing to particular audiences. This is a story that should be celebrated as a groundbreaking piece of technical theatre, paving the way for new pieces of live horror to be made.

Ghost Stories runs at The Lowry (Lyric Theatre) until March 1 and tours the UK until August 2.

Photo: Hugo Glendinning