Theatre preview: MR James ghost stories

Wednesday 13th January 2010

The ghost stories of M R James are widely regarded as among the finest in English literature.

Now, six of the eeriest and most entertaining of his ghostly tales are brought back to life in a gripping one-man show.

Nunkie Theatre has enjoyed sell-out success on previous visits to the Tobacco Factory and this month, performer Robert Lloyd Parry delivers his spine-tingling tales in the intimate setting of the Tobacco Factory’s new space, The Brewery.

Show One: A Warning To The Curious is a double bill featuring Lost Hearts, a creepy tale of ghostly revenge, in which two children seek vengeance from the man who caused their untimely demise.

This is followed by A Warning To The Curious, in which a young archeologist is haunted and hunted by the menacing guardian of an ancient treasure.

Show Two: A Pleasing Terror boasts a double bill that was nominated for the 2006 Dracula Society Hamilton Deane Award.

It focuses on two of the earliest and greatest tales by James – Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook, which follows a young Cambridge antiquary who discovers the devil in the details of an old book in a medieval town in the French Pyrenees, and In The Mezzotint, in which a ghoulish revenge is enacted within a work of art before the helpless eyes of a museum curator in Oxford.

Show 3: Oh, Whistle presents Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad, a tale of nocturnal horror on the Suffolk coast. This masterpiece of the macabre is beautifully complemented by The Ash Tree, a story of witchcraft and vengeance down the generations.

One of James’ most important achievements was to redefine the ghost story for the new century by dispensing with many of the formal gothic trappings of his predecessors, and replacing them with more realistic contemporary settings.

Every Christmas, he would write and perform ghost stories to entertain friends in his rooms in King’s College, Cambridge.

“M R James dedicated his stories to ‘those who have at various times listened to them’,” explains Lloyd Parry, “and I try to evoke the tone, atmosphere of his original performances.”

Robert Lloyd Parry won the Dracula Society’s Hamilton Deane Award in 2007 for best performance in the Gothic genre.

He is an actor and art historian who first read M R James’ ghost stories as a teenager and whose passion for them was rekindled when he began working at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, where James was director in the early 1900s. Since performing two of his favourite works in James’ old office in the Fitzwilliam in 2006, he has pursued this enthusiasm around the UK, USA and Ireland, often performing in venues closely associated with the author.

NATALIE HALE

The three ghostly double bills appear at The Brewery, Southville, from Wednesday, January 20, to Sunday, February 7.

A Warning to the Curious appears at The Brewery from Wednesday, January 20, to Sunday, February 7, at 7.30pm; A Pleasing Terror appears at the venue on Friday, January 22, and Saturday, January 23, at 9.30pm, and on Saturday, February 6, at 5.30pm; Oh Whistle appears on Friday, January 29, Saturday, January 30, and Saturday, February 6, at 9.30pm.

On Saturday, February 6, all three shows will be performed – A Pleasing Terror at 5.30pm, A Warning to the Curious at 7.30pm, Oh Whistle at 9.30pm

Tickets cost £9/£7 (see two shows on the same night for £15/£12 concs or all three in the trilogy on the same day for £21/£18 concs) – call 0117 902 0344. Suitable for ages 13+