Darker Shores
Hampstead Theatre, London
“Why don’t the working classes see ghosts?” asks a character in Michael Punter’s seasonal chiller, Darker Shores. “Because”, comes the reply, “they’re too busy”. Yes, there is a link between the traditional ghost story and the leisured classes. And this one is no different.
It is Christmas 1875 and the setting is Sea House, a suitably isolated Victorian pile on a suitably desolate stretch of the Sussex coast. As Professor Gabriel Stokes rents a room here, he soon finds that his idea of getting away from the hurly-burly of city life is compromised by some pretty odd happenings: things that go bump very loudly in the night. So he asks an American spiritualist, Tom Beauregard, for help and together the two men explore the spook-infested house.
Stokes is a man on a mission. Not only is he a natural scientist, he is also a Christian and his motive for seasonal seclusion is to write an anti-Darwinian polemic. Being a believer in a benign deity, he’s fine when comes to the Immaculate Conception, but not so keen on window-rattling presences. When Beauregard suggests that they hold a séance – to contact the other side, the darker shores of the play’s title – it’s soon time for a showdown with the spirit world.
Cue some spooky seasonal fun, with good belly laughs punctuating the fears and the frights. This genuinely chilling production, which stars Julian Rhind-Tutt as Beauregard and Tom Goodman-Hill, who took over the role of Stokes when Mark Gatiss had to pull out for family reasons, is pretty creepy. Directed by Anthony Clark, this is one of those plays that relies heavily on the techies, so it’s hats off to Paul Farnsworth’s black-curtained set, Tim Mitchell’s atmospheric lighting and Thomas Gary’s trippy projections.
Added to this enjoyable box of tricks, Punter’s text offers a handful of theatrical devices, from a beguiling mix of narration and action to discussion of arcane Victorian subjects such as the question of whether Adam had an umbilical cord. If God made him, then who was his mother? Other themes involve a satire on spiritual fakery and the clash between the new and old worlds. Add a dash of the fad for golfing, a touch of Alice in Wonderland, plus an old and trusty servant and this ghostly tale begins to simmer.
By adding a faithful retainer, Mrs Hinchcliffe, plus Florence the skivvy, Punter stresses the class politics of the Victorian era. In the end, it is Florence who proves to be a better spirit medium than Beauregard who, as his name implies, is chiefly concerned with how he looks. Likewise, it is Mrs Hinchcliffe who produces the vital information that solves the mystery at the heart of the play.
Goodman-Hill is thoroughly convincing as the Victorian stuffed shirt whose personal experience of loss makes him both credulous and desirous of easeful death while Rhind-Tutt has fun with an eerie Southern drawl and a big taste for bourbon. Likewise, Pamela Miles as the tight-lipped Mrs Hinchcliffe and Vinette Robinson as Florence give depth to the evening. It’s all very droll, very creepy and very seasonal.
Aleks Sierz
