This is the second post about our Ghost Stories tour, co-produced with HighTide. The first post, about the start of rehearsals, is available here.
Sarita Gabony in Even More… Ghost Stories by Candlelight. Set and costume design Lu Herbert, lighting design Jonathan Chan. Photo: Ali Wright.
On a dreary grey Tuesday night, I arrived in Ipswich to see the second performance of Even More… Ghost Stories by Candlelight.
Eastern Angles has a beautiful studio theatre, with house lights draped low over the lighting rig, and the rectangular space is full of warm chatter from a packed crowd. It’s interrupted by a sudden blackout and boom which, in all honesty, made me jump out of my seat.
Thankfully I’m not alone. Florence Espeut-Nickless has written the first piece, The White Horse, and even though she knows exactly what’s coming, there are still moments that make her jump.
It’s the difference between the intellectual knowledge that something will happen, but that knowledge not being able to prepare you for it happening.
Perhaps a little bit like grief.
What strikes me watching the pieces is how the monologue is the perfect form for a ghost story. It’s a form where one character can wrestle with an aspect of themselves – someone they’ve lost, their repressed love, or the caring responsibilities they’re running from – and that internal struggle is writ large in their relationship with the supernatural. The most acclaimed theatrical ghost story of recent times is Conor McPherson’s The Weir, now playing in the West End with a star-studded cast, and though that has a cast of five, the most affecting moments are the ghost stories, which play out as monologues or near-monologues. The Pentabus and HighTide production just puts the audience in the role of those other characters.
The other thing that’s so clearly transformed from the first day of rehearsals is the atmosphere of each piece. Anne Odeke’s The Takeover seemed light and airy in the rehearsal room. Now lit mostly by ring light, Keaton Guimarães-Tolley as Rolo is still disarmingly funny, but the whole piece feels close and claustrophobic.
I wanted to hear what it was like from the writers about the journey from rehearsal room to a live performance in front of a packed crowd.
Keaton Guimarães-Tolley in Even More… Ghost Stories by Candlelight. Set and costume design Lu Herbert, lighting design Jonathan Chan. Photo: Ali Wright.
Anne Odeke, currently up for four prizes, including best playwright, at the Black British Theatre Awards for her play Princess Essex, said, “This might seem odd, but one of my favourite things as a playwright is to watch the audience’s reaction to my show.”
This is the first time Anne had written horror for the stage, and so she was, “even more curious to see if what I had written had worked, and if audiences at the end of the play, were left with the same feeling they get when the hairs on the back of the neck stand up for no reason.”
Anne saw a sell-out show in Harlow, where she was “pleased to report audience members were jumping out of their seats, yelping, screaming, cuddling up to one other, at times even covering their eyes and ears.”
For Anne, that means her work is done.
Rosa Torr wrote the last ghost story, The Consequence of Diving Lots, and she highlighted how the whole process has been unusually and joyfully collaborative, “From writers rooms with three phenomenal playwrights, to dramaturgy sessions with titans Elle While, Clare Slater and Titi Dawudu, to the dizzying rehearsal room with the incredible production crew - the process of putting Ghost Stories by Candlelight together has been a collaborative dream at every stage of development.”
Like Flo, Rosa admits, “I still jump and feel those ghostly goosebumps whenever I watch - and I know what’s coming,” because of, “Anna Short’s terrifying sound design,” and the hazy, beautiful lights.
Reflecting on her own piece and her ambitions for it, Rosa says, “I wanted to give voice to a kid who’s mistakenly overlooked or misunderstood. Set in the uncanny maze of a self-storage centre, I was interested in grounding the ancient form of the ghost story in a contemporary and relatable place. What lurks behind those steel shutters?” and most of all, “What happens when you look?”
In a way it’s something the whole show does – stare into the dark, uncomfortable, thrilling places…
Keaton Guimarães-Tolley in Even More… Ghost Stories by Candlelight. Set and costume design Lu Herbert, lighting design Jonathan Chan. Photo: Ali Wright.
Catch Ghost Stories on tour!
Details: https://pentabus.co.uk/even-more-ghost-stories-candlelight-0
You can hear more from Rosa and Anne by listening to…
Anne on The Standard Issue podcast:
Rosa on BBC Radio Suffolk, 41:05 - 49:40, available until 6th November:
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002k441
Anne on BBC Radio Essex, 1:42:16 - 1:47:51 available until 3rd November:
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