'Ghost Stories' review — this frightfully thrilling hit returns to the West End just in time for Halloween

Read our review of Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman's spooky play Ghost Stories, now in performances at the Peacock Theatre to 8 November.

Summary

• Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman's popular 2010 play is back in the West End for a Halloween run
• The show features several scary ghost stories interrogated by parapsychologist Professor Goodman
• Jonathan Guy Lewis is the standout among the cast playing the haughty professor with personal demons

Horror is not a genre I normally enjoy, the 'thrill' of fear one I don't seek out very often. So it was with some trepidation that I approached the West End return of Ghost Stories, Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman's one-act play which has been a frightful hit since premiering all the way back in 2010, and now arrives in London, following a national tour, just in time for Halloween.

Spoilers are understandably discouraged, but it won't ruin any fun to disclose that the evening features a brief lecture, by sceptical "parapsychologist" Professor Goodman (Jonathan Guy Lewis), and three ghost stories he curates. They're a mix of the conventional – a nightwatchman (David Cardy) who encounters something strange on a shift – to the more unexpected and bizarre. What links them is that Goodman is keen to explain the psychological phenomenon behind each one, rather than believe the supposed apparitions at their centre are real.

There's something familiar about the way they unfold, an element of tales told in the dark with a torch shining on the teller's face (sometimes literally - there's a lot of torch action), which morphs into something more disturbing and strange. There are one or two unnecessary longueurs, but generally the tension nicely ratchets up along with the spooks. One moment in particular had me clutching my companion like a child in a haunted house.

The Peacock's somewhat shabby feel is a good fit for a show concerned with the paranormal. Dyson, Nyman and Sean Holmes's production has its tongue planted firmly in cheek, toying with theatrical and horror conventions from the (aptly named) safety curtain to a gallery of creepy dolls. The set by Jon Bausor and lighting by James Farncombe manage to feel both expansive and terrifyingly intimate, and a word too for Nick Manning's ominous, reverberant soundscape, and some gravity-defying special effects from illusionist Scott Penrose.

It's good to see Clive Mantle back on stage, in the role of a garrulous but haunted father, while Harry Rundle (covering for Preston Nyman on press night) convinces as a nice yet neurotic young student, and Cardy makes for a likeable cockney watchman with a habit of calling everyone "sunbeam". But Lewis is the standout, proving a perfect anchor as the charming if somewhat haughty professor with more personal demons than he may care to admit.

It may not be for the faint-hearted, but Ghost Stories is a welcome addition to a West End - which has been notably short on fright nights since the closure of The Woman in Black. Over 15 years since it was first seen, it's still providing a short, sharp, shock of a night out, and even an old scaredy-cat like me had to admit to enjoying the ride.

Ghost Stories is at the Peacock Theatre to 8 November. Book Ghost Stories tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: Ghost Stories (Photos by Hugo Glendinning)