Sam Wanamaker Playhouse (studio)
Emily Ling Williams (director)
70 minutes (length)
30 October 2024 (released)
31 October 2024
It doesn’t take much to bring about an eerie ambiance in the 17th century inspired Sam Wanamaker Playhouse but the sea of candles that awaits the audience of More… Ghost Stories by Candlelight certainly fits spooky season on Wednesday night.
Over an hour, Becky Barry and Sharan Phull take the intimate crowd through four separate ghost stories with little more than themselves and two instruments on stage. It’s an intimate performance that fits the quirky venue to a tee.
There’s no doubting that More… Ghost Stories By Candlelight is a success, but its triumph is perhaps more in its tribute to storytelling than anything ghoulish. If you come wanting 60 minutes of heart-racing frights, it’s the wrong show for you.
Instead, the play leans more into the fear that exists in everyday life. “Everyone has a ghost story. Whether you believe in the supernatural or not, we are arguably all haunted by something,” HighTide Artistic Director Clare Slater writes in the programme.
That’s not to say there aren’t moments that pull onlookers in with tension. Barry is particularly impressive in her intensity, aided by playing a mother skipping her medication and twisted lover.
Where More… Ghost Stories By Candlelight excels is in how it conveys the four short stories. The writing is tight and truly beautiful. With so little on stage, the images conjured up by the production is an impressive feat, from lonely lighthouses on beaches to muddy walks across folklore fields.
The best of the four short stories is, without doubt, the final. Barry takes the narrative lead as Phull lurks in the background awaiting her tragic fate, the two performers finally able to come together having told the opening tales separately.
Again, there’s nothing grisly or gruesome in that final story but it’s not to say the final twist isn’t shocking.
So, while More… Ghost Stories By Candlelight may oversell its play with the supernatural at this time of year, it’s more than worth a visit for its theatrical success.
Photo credit: Fourth Wall Photography
