Spooky shows are well-worth seeing - but I can't tell you why because it's a secret

One of my many 60th birthday treats was a weekend in Bath, including a visit to the Theatre Royal to see the touring production of 2:22 A Ghost Story, which is currently going down a storm in the West End.
It opened at the Noel Coward Theatre in 2021 and regularly changes the cast to keep things fresh. Lily Allen was in the first version, closely followed by Cheryl Cole in the second. Interesting casting choices, you would agree, as both ladies are more well known for their singing accomplishments. So seeing how they handle themselves in a dramatic role has probably been part of the attraction.

Although the story is ostensibly about a possibly haunted house, the play also contains interesting discussions about belief in ghosts and hauntings, spirits and spiritualism, whilst also being full of genuinely jumpy moments with clever use of stage effects. The audience is asked not to give away any secrets about what they have just seen, so as not to spoil it for future audiences. However, what I will say is that I had read about the twist, so was expecting it to go a certain way, but when it appeared not to go that way, it didn’t take me long to work out where it was going...the clues are all there, and very clever it is too. This all makes for a highly entertaining, if somewhat scary, evening, which was right up my street!

Having been brought up on the Bath side of Bristol, we used to come to the Theatre Royal to see various productions quite often, but that was a long time ago. However, once I stepped inside, I recognised it straightaway. It’s a beautiful old building, with several circles as well as the stalls where we were sitting and whilst we waited for the scares to start, I recalled hearing stories that the venue was haunted.

Apparently, the ghost of a Grey Lady has frequently been seen in the top left hand box as you look at the stage, which just so happened to be right in front of our seats. The story goes that she was an actress who hanged herself in the Garrick’s Head pub, next to the theatre, after her lover, the 18th century dandy Beau Nash, was killed in a duel by her husband. Sadly, she failed to appear during our visit.
Do you believe in ghosts - at the Northcott Theatre in Exeter

By a weird coincidence, a friend of mine contacted me on our way back from our weekend away, offering us tickets for another spooky night at the theatre. This time it was closer to home at the Northcott in Exeter on the following night. The play was called Do You Believe in Ghosts? I’d heard mixed reviews about this one, but as we happened to be free, I felt it only fair to go along with an open mind and I must admit to being pleasantly surprised.

This time the play started out as a lecture on haunted theatres by the lead character, interspersed with suitably spooky effects which got increasingly out of hand, resulting in a few of us getting a soaking sitting on the front row...
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Whilst it’s totally different from 2:22, it still covers similar themes and has some equally clever twists, which the audience is also asked to keep secret. So, apart from highly recommending the two productions, there is nothing else I can tell you about them...but I guess there is nothing stopping me from sharing with you details of the other haunted theatres we were told about as their stories are in the public domain...

He started off with the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, one of London’s most famous theatres, and allegedly the most haunted in the world, still very active today. Its spectral residents include the Regency-era clown, Joseph Grimaldi, who supposedly introduced the art of pantomime into this country, and nicely counterbalances the more disturbing figure of the Man in Grey, seen mostly in the upper circle, in a riding cloak and tricorn hat as he walks through the walls...

Another London theatre renowned for its famous ghost is the Adelphi, which is haunted by William Terriss, an actor-manager, who was murdered by a disgruntled fellow actor as he entered the building one night. As he lay dying, his final words were “I will come back”, and, to a certain extent, it’s like he never left...

Outside of London, we were told about the Grey Lady of the Palace Theatre in Manchester and the origins behind the Phantom of the Opera story. I’m sure there would have been more examples of hauntings to regale us with, but, unfortunately, our actors soon become embroiled in the real action of their play...

Over the next few months I’m being treated to other visits to the theatre, including an evening with Danny Robins, writer of the 2:22 play, and his thoughts on the paranormal; a revisit to my own old haunt at the Princess Theatre, where the Most Haunted team will be sharing with us their greatest hits...and maybe even a production called Shock Horror, which is set in a haunted cinema...As you can see, many spooky nights to come!