Ghost Stories arrived at the Grand Opera House this week with a great marketing campaign asking if you’re brave enough, ‘A truly terrifying theatrical experience’, ‘a worldwide phenomenon more spine-tingling and fantastically terrifying than ever’.
It has toured the world, it’s a long running West End hit, and a movie. We expected great things.
Beginning with a jump start that grabs your attention, Professor Goodman presents us with 3 apparent hauntings over the course of 90 minutes without an interval. The professor takes us on a journey through a series of paranormal activities in a darker than normal theatre, which adds to the atmosphere.
The darkness of the theatre with flashes of torchlight, the unexpected characters jumping onto stage, the bangs and flashes of light, they all fed into people’s fear of the dark, of the unknown, of being attacked. When something is hyped up to be scary, you’re already sitting on the edge of your seat waiting and ready for it to happen.
Were we scared? No. But I can see why some might be. Maybe I’m too desensitised to jumps and too intrigued by the paranormal to be scared by it. For me Ghost Stories was more intriguing than scary.
Let me know what you thought about it.
Jeff
