Things That Go Bump (plays)

Things that go Bump (trilogy)
Promotional image used in newspaper adverts
Written by	Alan Ayckbourn
Characters	Joe Lukin / David Ken Chase / Gordon Andy Rollinson / Martin Annabel Chester / Beth Miriam Chester / Connie Alice Moody / Ella
Date premiered	27 May 2008 (Haunting Julia), 10 June 2008 (Snake in the Grass), 22 July 2008 (Life and Beth)
Place premiered	Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough
Original language	English
Subject	Various, all involving ghosts
Genre	Various
Setting	Various
Official site

Things That Go Bump is a season of plays (often regarded as a trilogy) performed in 2008 by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn.

Unlike Ayckbourn's previous trilogies, where all three plays were written for the same season, the three plays in this set were written over a period of fourteen years. The first play, Haunting Julia, was written in 1994, and Snake in the Grass was written in 2002 as a companion piece. Finally, in 2008, a third play, Life and Beth, was written combining the six actors in the other two plays, and all three plays were performed as a trilogy at the Stephen Joseph Theatre. The plays shared the themes of ghosts, but the stories and characters themselves were unconnected.

Further details in background sections on individual Haunting Julia, Snake in the Grass and Life and Beth pages.

The history of the trilogy began in 1994, when the Stephen Joseph Theatre was still at its old Westwood site. Haunting Julia was written following inspiration from Stephen Mallatratt's stage adaptation of Susan Hill's The Woman in Black, and premièred at the theatre seven years earlier. His interest came from what he considered Mallatratt's ability to make audiences jump through good acting and tension rather than special effects. However, Haunting Julia ended up being dominated by the three living men and their relationship to Julia – a brilliant musician who took her life aged nineteen – rather than the appearances of any ghosts.

After a première with mixed success in 1994 and a more successful revival in 1999, now at the theatre's current site, Ayckbourn followed this play up in 2002 with Snake in the Grass. This was partly due to a wish to write a female equivalent of Julia, partly due to the continuing success of The Woman in Black, and partly due to the success that Yasmina Reza's play 'Art' was enjoying with a small cast. Mirroring the original play, Snake featured three women, and the "ghost" was the father of two of them. However, in keeping with Ayckbourn's tendency to move more contemporary themes, the play was arguably a much darker one, covering themes of sexual abuse and domestic violence.