Susan Hill wrote the novel and the late Stephen Mallatratt’s adaptation of it brought the most spine chilling and eerie tale off the page and onto the stage. There are all the best ingredients of a traditional ghost story, a large and gloomy house standing empty owing to its recently deceased occupant, on a windswept and foggy salt marsh complete with haunted graveyard and the unspoken tragic secret which may or may not be unlocked.

The clever thing is that the action takes place within the theatre in which you are sitting, with just a cast of two, Arthur Kipps is an old man who in his youth suffered a terrifying and horrible experience which he now wishes to recount to an audience in the hope that by so doing he will exorcise his demons. He hires a young actor to coach him in the means of the story telling and between them they take many parts, by dint of a simple change of coat and hat, or such ploys as bouncing on a wicker props basket to illustrate being driven in a pony and trap.

The story unfolds that as a young man Kipps was a solicitor and he was asked to go to attend the funeral of Mrs Alice Drablow of Eel Marsh House in the north east of England and then to catalogue her papers, doing so at Eel Marsh House, which stood alone on the marshes plucked and buffeted by moaning winds and surrounded by whispering mists. To give away the plot any further would spoil the suspense!

Suffice it to say that Michael Holt’s set is a perfect, in the foreground the dusty backstage rehearsal space with its friendly jumble of trunks, wicker baskets and chairs is separated by a gauzy curtain against whose backdrop is mirrored the ghostly goings on. Robert Demeger is marvellous as Kipps, as mournful and lugubrious a man as ever there was, you can see something weighs mightily upon him. Peter Bramhill as the actor has a jaunty devil may care attitude which is a great foil for Kipps’s seriousness and between them they carry the play very well. There is a dog in the cast who isn’t noted on account of the fact that she is imaginary but it is a compliment to both Demeger and Bramhill that they make her so real that one of the largest sighs of relief from the audience was when she was saved from drowning in the marsh!

If you would like an evening of suspense, tension, and terror and the chance to see strong men in the audience shriek with surprise and horror then this is the play for you. It was excellent and gets my thorough recommendation as deliciously hair raising night out.

Jacquie Vowles