The award-winning ThickSkin return to London following a sold-out tour with this chilling new play from Bruntwood Prize-winner Tim Foley.
When an out-of-work actor accepts a well-paid job playing a ghost at a remote countryside manor, he expects nothing more than a few easy scares for curious visitors. But as night after night unfolds, the role begins to blur with reality and something far more sinister starts to emerge.
Part ghost story, part psychological thriller, It Walks Around The House At Night will draw you into a world of creeping dread, unexpected twists and dark humour. Inventive staging, immersive sound and bold visual effects combine to create this edge-of-your-seat theatrical experience.
Unsettling, darkly comic and full of surprises, the stage is set… for ter
Review by Stephen Gilchrist
I love a good ghost story. I really do. I do not think I have ever been as frightened as when I saw the 1963 landmark supernatural horror movie, ‘The Haunting’, directed and produced by Robert Wise, where the tricks played on the audience were not what you did see, but rather than what you did not, amplified by numerous devices and ploys used in the filming. Wise used an anamorphic, wide-angle lens Panavision camera that was not technically ready for use and caused distortions, while keeping the camera moving, utilising low angle takes, and incorporating unusual pans and tracking shots.
And so to Tim Foley’s play, essentially a ninety-minute tour de force both by actor George Naylor and stage management of the visual and sound effects. There is another actor in the piece, Oliver Baines who plays a non-speaking character called ‘The Dancer,’ and an off-stage voice (by Paul Hilton) but this is really a one person show. Naylor plays ‘Joe’ an out of work, broke, gay actor, who works in a bar for an unrewarding boss, and who is employed by a bar regular ‘David’ to undertake a well-paid gig at his old country house, Paragon Hall, by pretending, for five nights, to haunt the grounds as a ghost in order to entertain his nieces.
The story is told both as a narrative, and performatively by Joe, to the audience. He is not allowed to enter the Hall and is accommodated in a lodge in the grounds. As the week wears on, Joe cottons on to the fact that all is not well, that there may be something in the grounds. He begins, as does Julie Harris in The Haunting, to mentally unravel. I shall say no more about the plot and the denouement for obvious reasons.
Naylor reminded me of a rather more endearing version of the late Rick Mayall. His/Foley’s narrative contains some humour, black, camp and otherwise, as well as expressions of terror as he responds to sights, sounds, shadows and flickers of what may, or may not be, something nasty in the metaphorical woodshed. Naylor delivers the intense and lengthy text masterfully and moves and prowls around the set skilfully, and with some difficult quick change somnambulistic body movements, virtually without pause, or break. I lost count of how often he changed in and out of his ‘ghost clothes.’
The show has of jump scares and lots of things go bump in the night, to Neil Bettle’s and Tom Robbins’ well designed production which also features much atmospheric videography and spooky lighting by Joshua Pharo. Pharo depicts, the grounds, woods and the Hall. Emily Foster is also to be congratulated for her work in managing the technical aspects of this production.
Beetles directs fluidly, even cinematically. How is it, then, that I left slightly disappointed? It is because the resolution was confused and presented to the audience with such speed by an off-stage voice, that it became almost incomprehensible. The Producers kindly provided a published play script to the press and so I was able to re-read, on the train home, what I should have assimilated during the proceedings at Southwark.
Nevertheless, for those who love ghost stories, this show will provide chills and scares aplenty, amid a central performance by George Naylor of real quality.
Photo credit: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
IT WALKS AROUND THE HOUSE AT NIGHT
Written by Tim Foley
Directed by Neil Bettles
Cast
Joe — George Naylor
The Dancer — Oliver Baines
Voice (recorded narration) — Paul Hilton
Creative Team
Set Design — Neil Bettles & Tom Robbins
Design Associate (Costume) — Anna Berentzen
Set Design Associate — Madison Omatseone
Lighting & Video Design — Joshua Pharo
Sound Design — Pete Malkin
Associate Director — Kieran Lucas
Sound Associate — Brendan Macdonald
Dramaturg — Claire Bleasdale
Casting Director — Laura Mallows
Senior Producer — Steph Connell
Executive Producer — Steph Connell
Produced by ThickSkin Theatre