As Christmas approaches, the seasonal treats are many and varied – they include extravagant presents, lots of eating and drinking, carol singing and, for many, a good old-fashioned ghost story. Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is probably the most famous of these, but there is a great tradition of a festive story that should both enthral and scare in its tale of dark goings-on in the long winter nights.
Hampstead Theatre have now provided a classy December offering in the form of Darker Shores, a new play from Michael Punter. Set in the Victorian era, it revolves around two men, the sceptical academic Gabriel Stokes and the possibly fraudulent American psychic Tom Beauregard, and their dealings with a mysterious haunted house in Sussex, The Sea House, in which all manner of sinister goings-on are said to have occurred. Stokes is a sceptic, but will some loud crashes and strange apparitions change his mind?
Well acted by Tom Goodman-Hill (a late replacement for The League Of Gentlemen‘s Mark Gatiss) as Stokes and Julian Rhind-Tutt as Beauregard, Punter’s play oscillates between chills and unexpected hilarity, as numerous witty one-liners keep the comic relief coming. It never becomes truly terrifying in the way that the play of Susan Hill’s novel The Woman In Black is, but if you want an entertaining evening in the style of MR James’ ghost stories, you could do far worse.
Until 16 January. www.hampsteadtheatre.com
