Occasionally you might come across something that gives you jump scares; it’s rarer to find something that creates a sense of creeping, chilling dread. This manages to do both. Continually. It grabs you from the start and takes you on a psychological fairground ride that gives you moments of light heartedness and time to breathe – before you’re straight in again into an emotional corkscrew that gives you prickle scares all over.
The actors are superb: each of them give nuanced, natural and grounded performances making everything even though highly improbable, completely believable. The fear, the tension, the belief balanced with disbelief and the squirming discomfort is absolutely real and authentic; doing the all important job of drawing us all in. They are all incredibly different characters which helps the juxtaposition of stories even further.
Which is all to do with the writing and direction by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman, which is some of the most rich and multilayered writing that you are likely to witness in any horror story, some of which will only become apparent in a second or perhaps third viewing: which is so very worth it. This must be the best portmanteau of horror of modern times, and fans of the genre will delight in it referencing the first great portmanteau of horror: The Dead of Night.
This is a multi-sensory experience show: it envelopes you. It’s only afterwards you reflect on it being a very tech intense show, which is another testament to how good it is, that you don’t even notice at the time, you’re just too busy enjoying it. There are a good many incredible set aspects to this whole show, a little different to its first appearance in Brighton in 2020, and a little noisy being moved at times behind the scenes but that’s likely to be opening night issues that get easily resolved; and instantly forgivable because it’s just too good.
This is a deliciously dark little cauldron of fears that seeks out what scares us most and gives it back to us. It also asks some deeper and more poignant questions of us, what it means to be alive, and what it means to be dead: and as a result is truly very scary indeed. Sometimes it’s fun to be frightened. Having seen it, we are now inducted into a special group, not unlike The Mousetrap, where we are asked to keep its secrets and not give spoilers. So here’s the only information you need: go and see it, but don’t go alone. And if you want to sleep with the light on afterward – go ahead, nobody’s judging.
Theatre Royal Brighton, 8 July 2025
Ghost Stories runs until 12 July 2025
Photos Credit: Hugo Glendinning
