Ghost Stories (play)
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| Written by | Jeremy Dyson & Andy Nyman |
| Date premiered | 4 February 2010 |
| Place premiered | Liverpool Playhouse, Liverpool |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Horror |
Ghost Stories is a play written by Jeremy Dyson (of The League Of Gentlemen) and Andy Nyman (best known for his work with psychological illusionist Derren Brown). It premiered at the Liverpool Playhouse in February 2010 before being transferred for a longer run at the Lyric Hammersmith in London. It then transferred to the Duke of York's Theatre in the West End where it played from June 2010 to July 2011. The show re-opened at the Arts Theatre in February 2014 and ran until January 2015. In 2015 the show was produced at the Sydney Opera House before going on an Australian National Tour concluding at the State Theatre Centre of Western Australia in October 2016.
The play is notable for running only 80 minutes (with no interval) and for its publicised warnings advising against anyone under the age of 15 attending. The marketing of the show outside the theatre is unusual in that there are no production photographs, just stills and video monitors showing the shocked reactions of audience members. An announcement at the end of the play asks the audience to "keep the secrets of Ghost Stories" so that new audiences do not have the experience spoiled with any prior information about the play.
Reviews of the show have confined themselves to outlining the basic structure of the plot, which revolves around Dr Goodman, a Professor of Parapsychology (Andy Nyman) delivering a lecture on ghost stories. In the lecture he discusses a website featuring ghostly pictures, scienceofghosts.com. He has recorded interviews with 3 people who claim to have had a supernatural experience. Each story seems to hinge on guilty feelings. As each interview is played back, the story is re-enacted on stage. The stories are recounted by a night watchman, a teen driver and a businessman awaiting his first child. These stories are then drawn together at the end, with a twist, as the Professor becomes a participant rather than just a narrator.
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