Ghost Stories
Milton Keynes Theatre
18th February 2025
If you’re looking to add a little stagey “bump” to your nights, touring play ‘Ghost Stories’ might give you just the fright you’ve been looking for. Written by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman, the stage spookfest first terrorised London audiences back in 2010 with its trilogy of terrifying tales, along with receiving a film adaptation in 2017, and now its back on the road again hoping to rustle up some more scares.
The less you know going into ‘Ghost Stories’, the more effective it is, so the spoiler-free premise is that we’re introduced to Professor Goodman (played by Dan Tetsell), an academic skeptic when it comes to the paranormal, and who begins to explore the techniques that the human brain uses when it comes to rationalising the supernatural, the roots of fear, and the way we cope with death. Goodman begins to recount three tales of supposed hauntings based on interviews with those involved (a nightwatchman in a storage facility, a teenager driving late at night, and a businessman expecting a child), which are then played out in front of us and pose various questions on reality, until ultimately the real truth is revealed.
For too long, ‘The Woman In Black’ was the only “scary” stage experience, and so ‘Ghost Stories’ was a welcome addition to the underserved genre. The play comes with warnings around its content and levels of tension, and these are not unwarranted. Although never graphic, ‘Ghost Stories’ creates palpable suspense and moments of nerve-shredding shock, and it does so brilliantly. Creators Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman clearly know that slow-burn is the way to true fear, tightening the grip on the audience like a vice before unleashing a reveal that sends pulses skyrocketing. There are moments where this is overstretched a little further than it should be, and the individual tales could maybe do with a couple more jumps each, but overall it’s hugely effective. The narration framework is a clever device that works really well, initially feeling like a genuinely-interesting psychology lecture before the ghostly events unfold, and the eventual twist that connects the stories comes as a real gut-punch that few will see coming.
Much of the insidious feeling of dread within ‘Ghost Stories’ comes from its incredible sound design (Nick Manning) which can be scary enough on its own regardless of what’s happening onstage, and also effective lighting design (James Farncombe), which shows just how scary a single flashlight being shakily moved across a dark stage can really be. At times it’s a little too dark, but this is perhaps a necessity to set up some of the stage illusions (Scott Penrose), which are unsettlingly good. Despite the slow-burn approach, the piece zips along to fill the 90 minutes, and Dyson and Nyman find a perfect balance of horror and comedy, the laughs often coming just before or just after a scare and keeping the audience on edge. There’s a real similarity to the structure of TV hit “Inside Number 9”, being an anthology of dark tales with a blackly comic edge, and fans of that series are likely to find a lot to enjoy here.
The small cast contains some familiar TV faces (Chris Gardy and Clive Mantle among them) and they all tell their individual stories well, with Mantle in particular coming into his own as the story hits its twist. Dan Tetsell is also brilliant as the narrating professor, playing with the audience early on as the dismissing skeptic and then slowly taking the character a different way.
If goosebumps and the tingling of spines sound like your kind of thing, ‘Ghost Stories’ is a macabre tale of guilt and loss told with frights-aplenty, and one that engages and exhilarates in equal measure. Edge of your seat stuff in the very best way, ‘Ghost Stories’ deserves to keep you up at night.
Ghost Stories runs at Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday 22nd February 2025 before continuing on its UK tour.
Performance runtime 90 minutes without interval.
