Youth theatre group Act II brought the thrills and fun of a portmanteau horror to Ayscoughfee Hall in an innovative and triumphant three-night run of Ghostly Tales.
In the tradition of classic anthology horror films like Dead of Night and Dr Terror’s House of Horrors – which usually had a chiller, a thriller and a lighter tale – Act II put together a Halloween show comprising six stories of varied tone. Three were classic ghost stories, three were new stories with a modern twist, penned by Act II writer-director Karl Gernert.
The chills began on the approach to Ayscoughfee Hall. A blustery evening made the orange-glow of the dimly lit Grade I listed building an inviting haven in the darkness.
As the audience gathered in the reception hall, it was revealed we would be split into three groups, determined by the colour of our tickets. There would be three plays per half, each performed three times. This was an admirable feat for the young cast who managed to keep each performance feeling fresh, despite each playing two roles across two plays, for a total of nine times over the three-night run.
With three groups split into three rooms, there was a frisson of excitement knowing the hauntings were simultaneous. During a show, the occasional distant scream from another performance bled through the museum walls and doors, lending a feeling that the hall was alive with these tales.
Our group’s first outing was to the Gardens Room for a night haunting courtesy of The Tapestried Chamber by Sir Walter Scott. A strong supporting cast gave the leads Jasmine Morley and Fin Smylie the support to play out the tale about deception with a steely intensity.
With its lighter tone, Oscar Wilde’s The Canterville Ghost Pitched poltergeist against plucky family and turned the tables on traditional hauntings. The ghost (played by Dominic Thorpe in a performance that cleverly flipped from funny to touching) has driven people out of his castle for centuries, but when an American family moves in, his hauntings are less than effective and he turns from devilish to dejected.
The chemistry between the family and the ghost bristled and flowed at pace. In the setting of the Gentlemans Society room, with giant portraits looming over the audience and movements flickering in mirrored windows, the cast in period dress looked like apparitions in the low light during scene changes.
The Gentleman’s Society room was inventively used in the second half, too, for another comic tale that made use of the giant doors that led to the library behind. The White Lady, set in Ayscoughfee Hall itself, brought a comical Most Haunted style TV crew, complete with its own unhinged medium played by Joe Smith and short-tempered presenter played by Ellie Davies. The historical segments of The White Lady’s hauntings were told in the deliciously lit library. These hauntings through history were told through skits, before the finale that had her come into the audience and get the better of the crew.
The varied and inventive staging highlighted how impressive the performers were. Two of the three rooms were set out with the audience surrounding the performers, who played out their story in middle of the room. Not only were the cast undaunted by the removal of the stage/stalls dynamic, the set-up brought the audience in and everyone’s experience was subtly different. The performers played out their scenes seemingly unaware of the audience surrounding them, which gave a nice blurring of lines – for the duration of the play, we were the passive observers haunting their scenes that played out as real life.
Even when cast members of the M.R. James’ The Dolls House segment got an unexpected extra shock when the legs of a prop bed gave way, the young team powered through with an admirable professionalism and it was a fine reminder that each performance was different.
After the classic tales, technology touched the second half for the contemporary stories. Cory Brook played the bored partygoer who called upon internet legend for the incantation that summoned the twins of Play With Me (performed by the spectacularly in-sync Amy and Lilly Wood). Meanwhile, Snapchat bridged realms in the pathos-laden When Worlds Collide, which ended with a family forced to accept a sad fate.
After the final play, the cast went up to the top level of entrance hall and received a deserved extended applause.
Soon the cast filtered out to meet proud parents and carers. The sense of pride was rightly palpable – they’d delivered multiple performances of plays that were spooky, unabashed fun and an experience that was a joy to be part of.
Ayscoughfee Hall Museum and Act II have worked together on a range of performances – keep an eye out for their next one.
The hall played its part as a great setting and passive character. Director and writer Karl Gernert, along with co-story-adapter Charlotte Gernert, presented a polished and compelling set of stories. But evert one of the young players were the stars.
