Meet the writers who aim to scare you silly
Now it’s our turn to jump out of our seats
Soon to cast a pall over the Theatre Royal is a show that people of a nervous disposition are being advised not to see unless they’ve thought about it very carefully.
“Are you brave enough to book?” potential audience members are being asked – and it’s recommended they be at least 15.
“I had to sleep with the lights on,” confessed one traumatised reviewer of Ghost Stories, the scary thriller written by Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson.
But will this keep punters away from this “ultimate love letter to horror”?
Not likely. Ghost Stories has had people bouncing out of their seats for 15 years now, and not just in this country.
“It’s been everywhere,” says the mild mannered Jeremy.
“China, Mexico, Peru. We went to Toronto with it… and to Moscow. That was amazing.”
And do people freak in the same places regardless of nationality?
“Pretty much. The one thing in Moscow that was different is they insisted it had to be set in England because no Russian man would be scared of a ghost. That’s what we were told.”
If you haven’t seen the show before – this is its first time in Newcastle – then you’d be right to ask how much of this is hype. But of course, there’s only one way to find out – by swallowing hard and buying a ticket.
Andy and Jeremy are pretty shrewd operators as you’ll see if you cast an eye over their CVs.
Jeremy, originally from Leeds, was a member of sketch team The League of Gentlemen and is a prolific writer with a special interest in horror and the supernatural. His books include a guide to horror films.
Andy, from Leicester, is an Olivier Award-winning actor with loads of stage and screen credits to his name. He plays Governor Thropp in the film Wicked and has recently played Max Bialystock in The Producers, a role he will return to in the West End later this year.
He is also a magician and mentalist who has worked a lot with Derren Brown. And he once appeared on TV in The League of Gentlemen, a favourite of those who like their horror seasoned with surreal comedy.
Both vividly recall meeting for the first time at a Jewish summer camp when they were 15 – which you might think makes that Theatre Royal age recommendation a bit rich.
“We were in the same dormitory and hit it off straight away,” says Jeremy.
“Our parents probably hoped we’d meet a potential bride rather than another smelly teenage boy.”
Andy can’t remember where the camp was in the UK and says these things are quite rare now. But his memories are similar to Jeremy’s. “We bonded over a love of horror and dirty jokes.”
Now both 58, they have been lifelong friends and had long promised to collaborate. Then, one day in 2008, Andy had a brainwave on a London street and rang Jeremy.
His friend recalls: “He said he’d had this idea of three men on stools telling ghost stories and did I think it was anything. I thought, well, I don’t know what that is but I want to see it.”
The way Andy remembers it, he’d just been to see The Vagina Monologues.
“I didn’t love the show but I thought it incredible that there were these three women sitting on stage reading – no set and yet it was packing them in and was on all over the world. What a business model!
“After that I walked past The Woman in Black which had been on in the West End for 20 years. Brilliant play and production, but I suddenly thought it mad that in all that time there hadn’t been another horror play.
“That’s like saying you can’t do a musical because The Phantom of the Opera’s on. I had this lightning bolt moment. I called Jeremy about this idea of three men telling ghost stories.”
There followed a year of what Jeremy calls “soft developing”, exchanging emails and recommending ghost stories or horror films the other might enjoy.
Then they pitched the idea to Sean Holmes, then artistic director of the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith.
“Andy’s a terrific showman so we did a full-on pitch and Sean called our bluff, basically,” remembers Jeremy. “He said, ‘Right, you open in a year’s time’. Which, of course, was a wonderful vote of confidence.
“But then we were both busy and couldn’t find the time for six months. Eventually we locked ourselves in a room. We’ve both got young families and they went away and I went to stay with Andy and we blitzed it.
“In about three days we pretty much had the whole thing. It was the crystallising of about a year of back and forth but it was explosive and hugely exciting.”
It wasn’t entirely plain sailing from then on, though. Both remember a terrible dress rehearsal at Liverpool Playhouse, where the play was to open, when the artistic director told them: “It’s interesting but not scary.”
“It was a disaster,” says Jeremy. “Not a single scare.”
“We thought it was going to be embarrassing,” Andy recalls. “We were playing a high stakes game because we’d put warnings all over it and pushed the fact this is going to scare you and you’ll jump out of your seats.”
They sat up all night and fiddled and tweaked. Sean Holmes advised them: “All problems are technical.”
Come opening night, with Andy cast in the key role of Dr Goodman, parapsychologist, all fingers were crossed.
But the audience was up for it and what hadn’t worked previously now worked a treat.
“We didn’t know until that audience came in,” says Jeremy. “Then they screamed at the first point they were supposed to scream and that was hugely exciting.”
He remembers experienced actor David Cardy, who has rejoined the cast for the current tour, saying as he came off stage: “Well, boys, this is your pension.”
Since it’s still pulling in punters despite those warnings, he reckons that wasn’t far from the truth.
“Every time we remount the show we solve another problem so we’ve been fiddling with it now for 15 years. This is the best version of it, certainly technically with all the scares.”
Andy says it isn’t quite the show he first imagined, having evolved in the writing, but – ever the showman – he insists: “You’ll jump out of your seat, no question.
“One thing we hear a lot from people is, ‘Oh, I hate horror but I loved that’. If you like a story or a film with twists, you’re in for a treat.”
He reckons the show sparked a revival in the theatrical horror genre and if you’re wondering why there are no female characters, he says you should look out for their new play, The Psychic, which will premiere in York next April.
While Ghost Stories highlights “toxic masculinity” with its examples of men behaving badly, the new one has three leading parts for women, “almost as a reaction, we thought”.
Ghost Stories runs from April 22 to 26 with tickets on sale via the Theatre Royal website - or call 0191 2327010.