Stage: A screaming good time

Ghost Stories
by Jeremy Dyson & Andy Nyman
directors Jeremy Dyson, Andy Nyman, Sean Holmes
with Jonathan Guy Lewis, David Cardy, Preston Nyman, Clive Mantle, Lloyd McDonagh, Simon Bass, Harry Rundle
sets/costumes Jon Bausor • lighting James Farncombe
sound Nick Manning • effects Scott Penrose
Peacock Theatre, London • 30.Sep-8.Nov.25 ★★★

After its 15th anniversary tour, this acclaimed show returns for another run in London, at long last giving me the chance to catch up with it. It's marketed as the most terrifying theatre experience ever, but perhaps I watch too many movies, so I need more than well-executed jump scares. So while everything about this production has been expertly designed to freak out the audience with lots of atmospheric nastiness, it's actually more funny than frightening. And the way it plays with the premise is very entertaining.

It's ingeniously framed as a sort of Ted talk by Professor Goodman (Lewis), who uses slides to trace how tales of hauntings have been passed down throughout human history, leading to our current viral social media age. It also quickly becomes apparent that he's hiding something about his own experience with the supernatural. Along the way, he highlights three stories of men he has interviewed about their encounters with spirits. These are enacted on stage one by one, and they ultimately draw the professor right into the mayhem.

First is Tony (Cardy), a night watchman whose comatose daughter feeds into something he sees in the dark. Then student Simon (Nyman) is driving home after a party when he has a nerve-jangling encounter in the countryside. And finally workaholic businessman Mike (Mantle) is juggling his constantly pinging phone with his expectant wife's fear of their new nursery when he witnesses some inexplicable goings on. Then all of this comes circling back around the professor in a whizzy final sequence packed with superb visual flourishes that keep us on edge. The cast is superb, especially the wonderfully offhanded Lewis.

The stage design majors in inky blackness, so pretty much the only things visible are illuminated in spotlights. This makes some of the effects sequences a bit difficult to see, but they still send chills up the spine, simply because they're so well-timed to catch us off guard or cleverly misdirect us from other magical trickery. The soundscape is also key, rumbling with increasing intensity until it peaks with a nutty vocal phrase or full-on aural explosion. So it's difficult not to jump in our seats, even if the suspense has been constructed with expert stagecraft, rather than character detail. That said, the show's most inventive point is that we know ghost stories are fake, but we're still frightened because, just maybe, it's true after all.

Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman

For details, GHOST STORIES >

photos by Hugo Glendinning • 7.Oct.25

Stage: Rewrite the stars

Derren Brown: Showman
by Derren Brown, Andy Nyman, Andrew O'Connor
dir Andrew O'Connor, Andy Nyman
sets & costumes Simon Higlett
lighting Charlie Morgan Jones
Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Ave, London • 9.Dec.22-19.Mar.23

Following a 155-date national tour, Derren Brown's latest show lands in the West End for an extended run. As with all of his stage productions, this one is about far more than mentalism and magic, both of which are of course outrageously entertaining. "The heart of the show is about remembering what's important," Brown says. "Particularly how the very things that we find most isolating in life - our fears and difficulties - actually connect us, in that they're the very things we share. Framed, of course, with some extraordinary demonstrations of my particular voodoo."

Brown's approach, even when he echoes other shows we may have seen, feels unusually fresh. He mixes dazzling trickery, audience participation and deep emotions into this performance using a striking mix of sound, lighting, projection, dialog and movement. The combination is often mesmerising, as indeed Brown repeatedly hypnotises random audience members who are brought onto the stage, injecting witty humour while neither making fun of anyone nor pushing people out of their comfort zones. He also of course plays with the brains of those who remain in their seats, including the heart-stopping theft of about 10 seconds.

Whether this is illusion or mind-control, and while it clearly has to be much more carefully planned out than it seems to be, the result is often staggering in the way it involves our feelings, tapping into our personal memories to explore the things that are most important to us, while also reminding us of the things that should be most important. So each seemingly impossible reveal manages to show us something about ourselves.

In his trademark style, Brown keeps the bigger themes running with echoing words, lights and images, subliminal suggestions and comments that feel unusually intimate. So while we're continually stunned by his seemingly supernatural ability to observe the tiniest detail, we're repeatedly reminded not to be sidetracked by things that aren't important, to refuse to live by other people's expectations and, most importantly, to be kind.

For information, visit DERREN BROWN >

photos by Mark Douet • 15.Dec.22

Critical Week: Somebody's watching

There were three high-profile British films screened to the press in London this week. Ghost Stories is Andy Nyman's clever adaptation of a stage pay that merges three horror subplots into a twisty, nasty comedy-thriller. Early Man is the latest claymation romp from Aardman, a hilariously silly adventure set where the stone and bronze ages meet. And Finding Your Feet is a warm and easy-going romantic drama livened up by excellent performances from Imelda Staunton, Timothy Spall and Celia Imrie.

From America, we had more horror comedy in the shape of Mom & Dad, a gonzo twist on several genres, featuring terrifically unhinged performances from Selma Blair and Nicolas Cage in the title roles. Dance Baby Dance is an extremely low-budget comedy about an aspiring tap dancer, charming but amateurish. And from France, the short film collection French Kisses is the usual mixed bag, and features some very strong clips.

There were also two documentaries: The Final Year is an oddly overslick look at Obama's last 12 months in office, fascinating but scrubbed clean. And 100 Men centres on a Kiwi filmmaker who takes an offbeat angle to explores gay culture over the past few decades.

Films this coming week include the trilogy finale Maze Runner: The Death Cure, the British thriller Lies We Tell, the musical biopic Thirsty and a restoration of the Bergman classic The Magic Flute.