Ghost Stories – an all male tale exploring the ghosts of guilt and toxic masculinity (Grand Opera House until Saturday 31 May)

The producers of Ghost Stories make a plea to audiences – and also specifically to reviewers – not to divulge the plot and keep the show spoiler free … although the original writers and directors did themselves make a 2017 feature film based on the story of their 2010 stage play!

Suffice to say that in terms of structure, an overall narrative thread revolves around paranormal debunking guest lecturer Professor Goodman (who has a touch of Nigel Farage about his voice and his mannerisms), and is illustrated by three different ‘ghost stories’ before a neatly circular conclusion that ties everything together and for which the clues have been staring everyone in the face for much of the previous 80 minutes in the exploration of guilt, poltergeists and locked-in syndrome.

The show’s reputation and marketing leans heavily on selling the “spine-tingling” experience as “a truly terrifying theatrical experience… with the buzz of a thrill-ride, delivering something truly unique”.

Theatre can be really chilling in terms of the story and the telling. Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman is deeply disturbing and always leaves my heart cold and my sleep disturbed (both the Decadent Theatre version and the more recent, excellent staging by Prime Cut/Lyric Theatre). The opening scene of Nancy Harris’s Our New Girl (which finished its run in the Lyric Theatre at the start of May) saw a young child alone on stage attempting to disfigure himself. A really frightening start orchestrated by director Rhiann Jeffrey. Back in 2014, Jimmy McAleavey’s Unhome (a Tinderbox production in The MAC) achieved both menace and ghostly apparitions that startled audiences.

Ghost Stories uses special effects to play with the audience’s senses even before the show even begins. Although I’m blessed with no sense of smell, people near me reported the smell of fresh carpet and damp before the curtain went up. The bass subs which continue to rumble as if you were in a cabin on a sea ferry throughout much of the show. Surround sound throughout the auditorium throws voices in unexpected directions. The lighting design (mostly lateral from the wings) and the forced perspective sets allow props and people to lurk in the darkness towards the back of the stage.

For me, the tales of “three apparent hauntings” felt quite mundane: I’ll not lose any sleep over the details. The night-watchman’s experience demonstrates good stagecraft. A teenage boy’s late-night account includes a great physical stunt. And there’s good prop control as we listen to “a businessman awaiting his first child”. However, the element of fright almost entirely revolves around loud noises, bright lights, and strobed glimpses of unexpected characters or objects. A sound-track of loud screaming accompanies these moments, making it seem like the whole audience is panicking when the number of vocal percipients is actually much lower. It’s like a sophisticated version of the Ghost Train at Barry’s (Curry’s) in Portrush without the dangling fronds touching your shoulder.

All of this ultimately builds up to a spectacular scene as the performance draws to a close with the – for once – totally unexpected arrival of a fifth cast member (which brought back fond memories of Patrick J O’Reilly’s Damage in the 2014 Outburst Festival). It’s the best effect in the one-act show and finally delivers a really thrilling moment that catches everyone off guard.

Worth noting that the content warning on the Grand Opera House website mentions “the use of smoke, haze, sudden very loud noises and moments of extreme shock and tension” but doesn’t highlight the strong reference to suicide (which seemed to be the trigger for a number of people to walk out last night). The location of a death and the victim’s age in the second story also has a tragic local resonance.

It’s relatively uncommon – but not surprising – to see a touring show with an all-male cast. (A child calling for her father and prolonged gasps of sexual satisfaction as a character watches a porn video are the only times women’s voices are heard during the play.) Taking my seat in the stalls 48 hours after the end of last weekend’s Front & Centre: Women of the North’s Playwriting Symposium, I did wonder whether the theme of toxic masculinity and the hint of male gullibility would be much weakened if the Professor (Dan Tetsell) or the young boy (Eddie Loodmer-Elliott) had been played by women. The remaining cast members are David Cardy (night watchman), Clive Mantle (businessman) and Lucas Albion (who appears on stage and understudies along with Simon Bass). Ghost Stories was written by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman, who also directed the play along with Sean Holmes.

Ghost Stories will continue to uncover its truth in the Grand Opera House until Saturday 31 May. The performances are good, the technical trickery is expert, but it was rarely as terrifying as it promised.

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