Review: More... Ghost Stories by Candlelight (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse)

Review by Sam Waite

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Closing out another successful tour with a stint at Shakespeare’s Globe’s intimate, immensely atmospheric Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, HighTide return with the aptly titled More… Ghost Stories by Candlelight. As we reach the spookiest of seasons, it seems only right that a new set of scary stories be brought to life on this most every, most dimly lit of stages.

With a story of two lost lovers framing the event, we are guided by two performers through a series of paranormal tales linked this time around by heartache and betrayal. Where one story concerns a daughter attempting to move on from her mother’s passing, another focuses on the pain that those we've lost’s memory can evoke from beyond the grave. Another cleverly uses humour to disguise a tragic core, while the finale explains how the two women came to be telling these stories, and what unites them beyond time and space.

Helmed by director Emily Ling Williams, More Ghost Stories establishes itself well as both something wholly connected, and a set of disparate tales. Williams’ use of the stage has the pair of actors orbiting and musically accompanying one another, but never seeming to truly inhabit the same space. “Kit and I have always been together,” says the narrator of Lovers’ Gate, Eloise Pennycott’s final, fateful fable. It's easy to believe that these women have always existed in tandem, but the real sense of tension is in how firmly established their disconnect is, leading to a marvellous payoff.

There are, of course, hazards to an hour of theatre with four separate playwrights’ work to explore. Where Pennycott and her fellow authors are clear talents, the impact of their emotional climaxes is somewhat softened by the nagging doubt as to whether this is a connected piece, and if not why the actors are so emotional in their character work when seemingly telling someone else's story. The authors all lean into different sub-genres for their ghost stories – grief-stricken family drama from Tessa Deparis, more traditional horror from James McDermott, murder mystery from Aisha Zia, and tragic romance from Eloise Pennycott – and each does a remarkable job at forming an atmospheric, haunting tale. It's only when attempting to see it as a singular work that my mind refuses to cooperate.

Sharan Phull, given the daunting task of “going first” in the back-and-forth of storytelling, proves a deeply moving and deeply wounded protagonist in Deparis’ lighthouse. Here she is raw, embittered, longing for some greater meaning than life has seen fit to give her. Later, as the narrator of Zia’s She, Phull acquits herself equally well to a snarkier, angrier heroine, exhibiting a brilliant shift in persona that ends in a literal screaming anguish.

Becky Barry mines real pathos and the wisdom of a woman far beyond her own years in McDermott’s Breath, bringing both genuine terror and richly felt guilt to the surface. Leaving the story on a cliffhanger, with questions raised which are never truly answered, her abilities go a long way towards keeping the audience satisfied emotionally, if not intellectually. As the love-struck, desperate youth of Pennycott’s Lovers’ Gate, she is both delightfully silly and utterly captivating, bringing the story to a devastating, wildly effective conclusion.

Anna Pool, acting not only as composer but as musical director and sound designer, makes good use of the Wanamaker’s unique space. The vocalising and soft guitar strumming of the actors keeps the potential awkwardness of two performers monologuing for a full hour from setting in, and Pool’s through-running themes keep the stories from ever seeming too disconnected. These eerie, unobtrusive compositions begin before the performance itself, setting the candle-lit scene from the moment that you enter the space, opening you up to the supernatural stories to come.

Mona Camille’s staging is simple and not always fully utilised, primarily serving to raise each actor up that bit more to be fully seen or properly lit by the candles. Where Williams does keep her actors in effective motion around one another, there is a lack of dynamism that is highlighted when, late in the show, a character leaps nimbly between two platforms, drawing our attention to how exciting this could have been elsewhere. Perhaps I'm simply nitpicking, this being a largely sedate, affecting evening rather than one of jump-scares and over-the-top antics, but perhaps the work being performed on stage may warrant more visual theatricality.

Unsettling and affecting, it's no mystery why More… Ghost Stories by Candlelight has followed up last year’s success and why people are flocking for this repeat visit. Anchored by two exceptional performances and boasted some truly wonderful writing, it may be divisive in its cohesiveness and its choices to focus on words over theatricality, but is inarguably a great showcase of several scary, touching, and even heartbreaking stories

More… Ghost Stories by Candlelight plays at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse until November 2nd

For tickets and information visit https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/whats-on/more-ghost-stories/

Photos by Fourth Wall Photography