Before a word is spoken, Ghost Stories sets its tone with howling wind, dripping water and intermittent witchy cackles echoing around the theatre. The house lights flicker sporadically, and the atmosphere feels more Halloween theme park than psychological thriller. It’s an early clue to what kind of night lies ahead: a production that can’t quite decide whether it’s a play or a pantomime.
Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman’s Ghost Stories has been a cult favourite since its 2010 premiere, promising a chilling theatrical experience built on suspense, psychological intrigue and the power of suggestion. At least, that’s the claim. On this UK tour, we’re given something far less confident in its storytelling: a barrage of ear-splitting jump scares, clumsy special effects and self-defeating theatricality that sits oddly at odds with its own ambitions.
The premise centres on Professor Goodman (Dan Tetsell), a parapsychologist delivering a lecture on the supernatural. He recounts three eerie case studies: a security guard (David Cardy) working the night shift in a disused asylum; a teenage boy (Eddie Loodmer-Elliot) who ‘borrows’ his dad’s car with terrifying consequences and a cocky businessman (Clive Mantle) whose expectant fatherhood coincides with a ghostly visitation. The stories are re-enacted in turn while Goodman probes their meaning – and eventually, his own past.
Unlike genre-defining thrillers such as The Woman in Black, which build atmosphere through performance, silence and psychological nuance, Ghost Stories seems unwilling to trust its audience’s imagination – or its own writing. Instead, it cheats its way to frights with relentless, painfully loud sound design that jolts more than it unsettles. The impact is akin to someone repeatedly slamming a cupboard door behind you – not fear, just irritation.
The cast do what they can with the material, which is no small feat when they’re up against a barrage of strobe lights, migraine-inducing sound cues and a script that gives them little to do beyond reacting to things in the dark. Characters mostly enter, look nervous and wait to be startled – yet, remarkably, the actors’ skill still shines through. It’s a testament to their talent that anyone manages to be compelling amidst the chaos.
Tetsell brings real presence to Professor Goodman, grounding the production with a dry, sardonic charm that’s quietly magnetic. In fact, had the entire evening simply been him delivering a lecture on the anthropology of ghost stories, it might have been a far more enjoyable show.
Cardy lends a laid-back warmth to the night watchman – part seasoned raconteur, part grandad with a glint in his eye. Loodmer-Elliot gives the teenage driver a frazzled urgency, though the script leaves him stuck in a loop of guilt and shock. Mantle gives the businessman a brittle smugness, hinting at a darker edge the production skirts but never confronts.
Visually, the production leans into cliché. The design is dimly atmospheric but unremarkable – flashing torches, creaking floorboards and pitch-black transitions make up most of the stagecraft. Occasionally, the set delivers a moment of promise, like a cleverly placed mirror or a split-second lighting trick. But these are rare glimmers. More often, the show relies on amateurish paranormal effects – floating cloths, glowing eyes, and clunky puppetry – that border on parody. It’s hard to believe this isn’t a tongue-in-cheek nod to just how weak the material is. If it’s deliberate camp, the production never quite owns it; if it’s meant to be genuinely unsettling, it misses the mark by miles.
In a bizarre fourth-quarter Hail Mary, the play attempts to reposition itself as a moral fable. It throws out a handful of weighty themes – guilt, trauma, personal accountability – as though desperate to give the show a reason to exist beyond its startle tactics.
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By the time the final twist arrives, complete with a self-important thematic wrap-up, it’s too little, too late. The play gestures towards psychological depth but never earns it, content instead to let the noise do the heavy lifting. There’s a cleverer, creepier show buried somewhere within Ghost Stories – but this version doesn’t trust itself enough to find it.
In the end, Ghost Stories is not without entertainment value, but it feels more like a carnival ghost train dressed up in theatrical clothing than a genuinely thrilling night at the theatre. If you’re looking for nuance, menace, or any lasting unease, you won’t find it here. But if you fancy being shouted at in the dark for 90 minutes, you’re in for a treat.
Ghost Stories
The Alexandra, Birmingham
Writers: Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman
Directors: Jeremy Dyson, Andy Nyman and Sean Holmes
Set and Costume Designer: Jon Bausor
Lighting Designer: James Farncombe
Sound Designer: Nick Manning
Special Effects: Scott Penrose
Cast: Dan Tetsell, David Cardy, Eddie Loodmer-Elliot, Clive Mantle, Lucas Albion, Simon Bass
Ghost Stories will be performed at The Alexandra until 24 May 2025 before touring nationally.
