The Ellen Terry Theatre Haunts The Stables
ELIZABETH ALLEN
Following their recent witty and joyful production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Ellen Terry Barn Theatre company returns to the Stables with an altogether darker prospect. This is The Haunting,a two-hander based on the supernatural stories of Charles Dickens.
Bill Allender as Gray and Charlie Abrahams as David, in The Haunting
While Dickens was passionate about theatre, his own plays were less than a roaring success, and it is in his novels that we find demonstrated his extraordinary dramatic sense. His passionate readings from the novels attracted massive audiences, both at home and in the United States, and it is sometimes claimed that it was his reading of the sensational murder of Nancy by Bill Sikes in Oliver Twist that caused the exhaustion and raised blood pressure that led to his death at 58. Dickens was fascinated, too, by the terrors of the supernatural and wrote a number of short stories, including The Queer Chair, The Signalman and The Haunted Man which are referenced in this new play, The Haunting, by Hugh Janes.
Co-directors of The Barn Theatre, Zo Biba Leonard and Matt Turpin, are fascinated by the potential of the supernatural in theatre. “It offers so much in terms of interpretation,” says Matt. ‘You feed off the energy of the audience. It’s not all over at the end. It goes on with people in the bar arguing about what happened.” “It’s crucial not to be explicit,” adds Zo, “The things you can’t see are always more frightening than those you can.”
The Stables is a special space for Zo and Matt. It was here that they met in 2006 in a production of Ben Elton’s Popcorn. While Zo played a starring role as one of a pair of serial killers, it was Matt’s debut and, he says, “a baptism of fire”, as he had to appear on stage in nothing but his boxer shorts.
Later in their careers, when they had formed a theatre company, another Hastings venue, St Mary in the Castle, saw a less happy outcome. The planned production was The Hypochondriac, based on Moliere’s Le Malade Imaginaire. It is, of course, as Matt put it, “The story about a chap worried unnecessarily about his health.” But the show had to be pulled because, at that moment in early 2020, everyone began to worry about their health. And, sadly, this time the malady was not imaginary.
The Haunting, by Hugh Janes, will show at The Stables Theatre Wednesday-Friday, 5-7 November, at 7.30 pm. stablestheatre.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/873676268
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