For the performance of two ghost stories, The Ash Tree and Oh Whistle, and I’ll Come to You My Lad, originally published in Ghost Stories of an Antiquary in 1904, actor Robert Lloyd Parry looked every bit the author he represented – medievalist scholar M R James, former Provost of Kings College Cambridge, later of Eton College – a successful academic with a penchant for writing ghostly tales.
Wearing a ‘lived-in’ suit complete with shirt, tie, waistcoat adorned with pens and a chain watch in the pocket, round spectacle glasses on his nose and sometimes holding a pipe or a glass of brandy in his hand, Parry set to work in a disarmingly genial way to entrap the imagination of those of us lucky enough to be in this sell-out show’s audience. That another earlier performance had to be rapidly convened to satisfy the demand for tickets is testament to the appeal of good old-fashioned storytelling, and of course the promise of a frisson of fear.
Parry (as James) cut an amiable, academic, slightly bumbling and eccentric figure seated on a high-backed leather armchair positioned on an aged Persian carpet, lit only by a large candle to his right and a tabletop candelabra to his left. The small table next to him was also host to a decanter, a box of Swan Vestas matches, books and a few black and white photographs.
The audience was drawn in by Parry’s delivery, as though being consulted by a friend. James’s writing conjures innocuous settings into which sudden but quite low-key oddities are injected that gradually undermine the composure and ordinariness of the dialogue before taking centre stage. Parry was always able to vary his tone and intensity to match the ramping up of horror as it developed. What James’s stories do well is remind us that it doesn’t take a great deal to put us in a state of unease, and that sometimes it can be seemingly trivial ambiguities that can chill us most.
The scene setting was in itself an enjoyable part of the night’s entertainment. Windswept and desolate beaches on the Suffolk coast, old seaside hotels, lowering trees extending their branches to windows, flint-strewn cemeteries – all were described with detail to invoke atmosphere, place and time. Parry enhanced the tension with his ability to use the shadowy light around him and with simple but highly effective hand and head movements accentuate points of terror. He was certainly a match for the wiles of James’s plots, occasionally shocking the socks off us with unsuspecting noises or movements in the dimly lit room.
Oh Whistle… now moves on to Cambridge where you can see performances at Hemingford Manor, built in the 1130s, reputedly the oldest inhabited house in England and former home of occasional ghost story writer Lucy M Boston. Where better? Highly recommended. ★★★★★ Simon Bishop 7th March 2016
