Ghost Stories (play)

Ghost Stories is a horror play written by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman.[1]

Ghost Stories
Written byJeremy Dyson & Andy Nyman
Date premiered4 February 2010
Place premieredLiverpool Playhouse, Liverpool
Original languageEnglish
GenreHorror

Production

The play was conceived after Nyman walked past the theatre which had hosted The Woman in Black (play)for over 30 years, and he realised there hadn't been a horror play produced since that time. He proposed an original idea, like The Vagina Monologues, with three narrators on stage telling ghost stories.[1]

It premiered at the Liverpool Playhouse in February 2010 before being transferred for a longer run at the Lyric Hammersmith in London. It then transferred to the Duke of York's Theatre in the West End where it played from June 2010 to July 2011.[2] The show re-opened at the Arts Theatre in February 2014 and ran until March 2015.[3] In 2015 the show was produced at the Sydney Opera House[4] before going on an Australian National Tour concluding at the State Theatre Centre of Western Australia in October 2016.[5] The play was also performed in Canada (2011), Russia (2012), Peru (2015), China (2018) and Finnland (2018).[1]

In April 2019, the original creative team came together again to stage the production for an extended run at the Lyric Hammersmith.[6] The production transferred to the Ambassadors Theatre form 4 October to 4th January 2020 before embarking on a UK tour from January 2020 at The Alexandra, Birmingham.[7]

The play is notable for running only 80 minutes (with no interval) and for its publicized warnings advising against anyone under the age of 15 attending.[8] The marketing of the show outside the theatre is unusual in that there are no production photographs, just stills and video monitors showing the shocked reactions of audience members. An announcement at the end of the play asks the audience to "keep the secrets of Ghost Stories" so that new audiences do not have the experience spoiled with any prior information about the play.[9]

Plot

Reviews of the show have confined themselves to outlining the basic structure of the plot, which revolves around Dr Goodman, a Professor of Parapsychology (Andy Nyman) delivering a lecture on ghost stories.[10] In the lecture he discusses a website featuring ghostly pictures, scienceofghosts.com.[11] He has recorded interviews with three people who claim to have had a supernatural experience. Each story seems to hinge on guilty feelings.[12] As each interview is played back, the story is re-enacted on stage. The stories are recounted by a night watchman, a teen driver and a businessman awaiting his first child.[13] These stories are then drawn together at the end, with a twist, as it becomes clear that the Professor is a participant in the stories and not simply a narrator.[9]

Creative Team

The creative team for the original run of the play were:[1]

Cast

Professor Phillip Goodman Andy Nyman
Tony Matthews David Cardy
Simon Rifkind Ryan Gage
Mike Priddle Nicholas Burns

Crew

Written by Jeremy Dyson & Andy Nyman
Directed by Jeremy Dyson, Andy Nyman
Associate Director Sean Holmes
Designed by Jon Bausor
Lighting by James Farncombe
Sound by Nick Manning
Special Effects by Scott Penrose

Film adaptation

A film adaptation premiered in 2017, starring Nyman in a reprisal of his role as Professor Phillip Goodman, Paul Whitehouse as the night watchman, Alex Lawther as the student and Martin Freeman as the businessman.[14]

References
  1. Dyson, Jeremy; Nyman, Andy (2019). Ghost stories. London: Nick Hern Books. ISBN 9781848428263.
  2. "Ghost Stories (Duke of York's Theatre)". Retrieved 27 July 2011.
  3. "Ghost Stories Review". eventseeker.com. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okhTgH8zBTA
  5. http://arts.theaureview.com/news/haunting-pyschological-thriller-ghost-stories-to-tour-australia-from-july/
  6. https://www.britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/ghost-stories-lyric-hammersmi-17394
  7. "Ghost Stories UK Tour – Book Tickets Now". British Theatre. 21 September 2019. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  8. "Ghost Stories - Artist Profile". Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  9. Spencer, Charles (1 March 2010). "Ghost Stories at the Lyric Hammersmith, review". The Daily Telegraph. London: Hollinger International. Retrieved 2 September 2010.
  10. Gardner, Lyn (2 March 2010). "Ghost Stories: Lyric Hammersmith, London". The Guardian. London: Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 2 September 2010.
  11. Phil; Andrew (3 March 2010). "Review - Ghost Stories, Lyric Hammersmith". West End Whingers. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  12. Taylor, Paul (9 March 2010). "Ghost Stories, Lyric Hammersmith, London". The Independent. London: Independent Print. Retrieved 2 September 2010.
  13. Johnson, Angela (10 February 2010). "Review: Ghost Stories at the Liverpool Playhouse". Click Liverpool. Liverpool: Mecury[sic]Press Agency. Archived from the original on 19 January 2013. Retrieved 2010-09-03.
  14. Bradshaw, Peter. "Ghost Stories review – Martin Freeman and Paul Whitehouse shine in dreamlike spookfest". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 October 2017.

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