If you were going to trust two people to construct a play to scare the bejebus out of the audience, The League of Gentlemen’s master of the macabre, Jeremy Dyson, and Andy Nyman, co-creator and director of Derren Brown’s television and stage shows, would be the chaps to call. The Lyric was cleverly decked out with hazard tape and sinister-looking numbers chalked up on the walls, with dim, flickering lights and eery dripping sounds, so that walking in was a theatrical experience in itself. This combined with all the warnings about the play being unsuitable for under 16s or those with a ‘nervous disposition’ meant that I was already shaking a little in my seat before the blood-stained safety curtain had been raised.

Nyman plays Professor Philip Goodman, a cynical and corduroyed parapsychology expert who is out to live up to his surname, and help those who believe they have seen specters from beyond the grave. His opening speech directly questions the audiences’ motives for being there, and addresses our desire to be spooked. Throughout the 80 uninterrupted and tension-filled minutes he presents the story of a night watchman in a dingy depository, a student driving home through deserted country lanes and a businessman haunted whilst his pregnant wife is in hospital. Nyman and Dyson are not out to break new horror ground; none of these three scenarios are particularly imaginative, in fact they more often than not verge on cliche. But I’m not really sure this matters—they are trying to give the audience a scare, and prove that horror is not entirely dependent on the trickery of film.

And a scare is certainly what we got. The effects, though slightly predictable, never failed to inspire jumps and squeals from the audience, and the sense of smell especially is used to great effect. The writers are masters at realising the important link between fear and laughter, and waves of nervous giggles rolled around the auditorium after the scarier moments, often helped along by the characters’ quips and reactions. The script is clunky in parts, with a slight lack of fluidity between the stories, which is not quite made up for by the surprising ending, but all the performances are superb, especially David Cardy as the night watchman and Nicholas Burns as the sinister business executive. But for entertainment value, this is well worth a trip, and it’s refreshing to see  a pair of writers attempting to do something a bit new with theatre, and reach out to a fresh audience. And I for one will be sleeping with the lights on for a few more days, and fiercely avoiding the smell of bleach…

by Agnes Frimston

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