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Jeremy Dyson & Andy Nyman's GHOST STORIES

sherbetbizarre

Special Branch
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Sep 4, 2004
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Horror play Ghost Stories is top of the scary League

A new supernatural horror story for the stage is to carry a warning over its shock factor.

Under-16s will be told that Ghost Stories at the Lyric, Hammersmith, is not suitable for them while those of a nervous disposition are “strongly advised to think very seriously before attending”.

Jeremy Dyson, co-writer of the hit TV comedy series The League of Gentlemen, has collaborated for the first time with Andy Nyman, an actor and writer for illusionist and magician Derren Brown.

Dyson and Nyman, both 43, wanted to produce a show in the mould of cinema hit Paranormal Activity.

Nyman said The Woman in Black — which still causes audiences to scream in shock after 21 years — was the only long-running theatrical example of the genre. But he and Dyson wanted something very different.

Nyman said: “Fingers crossed, you emerge shaking and laughing and just desperate to sit and have a drink.”

Ghost Stories runs from 24 February to 3 April

LINK
 
Saw this tonight - worth catching if you're into spooky tales told with atmosphere... a really good 80 minutes of atomspheric set-design, poltergeists, ghost-photography and monsters. :)

http://www.lyric.co.uk/pl501.html
 
Saw it myself tonight in central London and enjoyed it, clever, atmospheric, a few jumps, a few laughs. Kinda though the stories were out of order as I found the nightwatchman's story to be the best, where as city boy should have been at the front.

Still well worth catching. IMHO The stage was made for this sort of thing and it's high time Pepper's Ghost was back in the West End.

Do you know if any of the tales are true Sherbert? Or are they based on real stories ?
 
I don't believe any were specific to real stories... I think they talked about their influences in the booklet.... which is around here somewhere.

Glad you enjoyed it!
 
Just saw a thing about this on BBC Breakfast News. How does it shape up to the Woman In Black? I get the impression it would be more in your face attempts at scares rather than the subtle slow burn of TWIB?

Only running til November, hoping to go before it ends its run.
 
Now a movie (well, next year...)
Ghost Stories Adds Martin Freeman To The Cast

After successfully frightening West End audiences with their envelope-pushing play, Jeremy Dyson & Andy Nyman are bringing Ghost Stories to the big screen. Dyson and Nyman will co-write and direct the movie adaptation with Nyman reprising his role as the paranormally troubled Professor Phillip Goodman, a hardened supernatural skeptic who is urged to assist his former mentor with a trilogy of spooky cases to solve.
http://news.boxofficebuz.com/article/ghost-stories-adds-martin-freeman-to-the-cast
 
Finally saw Ghost Stories last night and thought it was great. My wife hates watching horror movies (and I'm getting soft in my old age) but I was excited to see it on-demand so we went for it. I regret never having seen it on the stage but from the film I could see how that performance medium would work brilliantly.

The stories in it were creepy and there were genuine scares. My wife sat with her hands on her eyes peeking through her fingers. There were some genuine laughs too and I loved how it all came together in the end. What I loved though were the clues and Easter eggs. I'll write more below so as not to spoil it but this was a great evenings entertainment.
Ghost-Stories-review-DVD-blu-ray-release-Maritn-Freeman-review-1474576.jpg

Nyman works alot with Derren Brown however Nyman himself is a very accomplished magician. (I perform some of his material in my shows). Like in the stage shows, this film weaves clues and links all over the place and it's not until the end, or as Martin Freeman's character says, "Isn't it funny how the last key always unlocks everything", that everything falls into place.

At the end we find that Good-man is in a never-ending circle of nightmares inspired by people and objects in his room. "No, not again" he says as Callahan slides his finger (or air tube) into his mouth. (We spent a good 30 minutes going back over the movie to see what we could spot).

Some fun stuff:
He sees himself on the beach watching the two bullies from his childhood and Callahans plastic bag comes to him.
All clocks and times show/are 3.45 - the time of his hospital admittance.
The series of 9 numbers are everywhere - obviously referring to the numbers on the wall inside the sewer (they are on the shop shutters at the camp site, the cell doors in the disused hospital, taped to the inside of the wooden hut containing the shot guns)
There is no 10th number - hence the name of the pub.
He is lying in Christchurch Hospital - you see the name on the side of the mop bucket. It's the place he names when he confronts the fake medium on stage in the beginning.
Paul Whitehouse calls him "Kojak" during their interview in the pub.
He is seeing himself in hospital (upstairs in the boys house) and a snapshot of his own youth (and of Callahan) on the staircase.
The doll with the yellow clothes is in his hospital room.
Martin Freeman (as the doctor) says that blowing your head off with a shotgun is the best suicide method (and that's how he does it). He even jokes by saying (in a Punch & Judy voice) "That's the way to do it!" Paul Whitehouse's character mentions that a person performing Punch and Judy is called a Professor.
Martin Freemans character is texting during their walk and says he has a Chinese thing going on. This links up with the radio phone in about a chinese - "Mmmm, fried rice".
Dead birds - the bullies are playing with one, there is one in the basement and then one hits the window at the end, inspiring the demon hitting the car window perhaps?

The one bit I can't really explain or understand is Barty. The name maybe refers to the name of the dead child at the beginning - Robert. But what is it? Why is it? And what does it represent? Is it half-human/half-cat? A demon? A freak?
 
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Isn't life perculiar?

I've just been hired as the Mentalism/Illusion Consultant on a stage version of "Ghost Stories" in Gothenburg.

Are you good at putting the willies up people?
 
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