Robert Lloyd Parry is a mesmerising storyteller. He has returned to Tobacco Factory Theatres with four more chilling ghost stories, the latest in Nunkie Theatre’s M R James Project.  Last night’s tales were A View From A Hill and The Treasure Of Abbot Thomas. On Sunday November 3^rd he will be at the same venue for Lost Hearts and A Warning To The Curious.  There can surely be nobody better qualified to bring these stories to life, for Parry has been an M R James fan since his teenage years, and he has been presenting James’s work on stage to considerable acclaim since 2005.

We see a button upholstered armchair, and a side table upon which sits a decanter and a candelabra. Books, papers and a couple of wooden chests lie scattered around, just visible in the flickering candlelight. We could be in a corner of James’s own room at Cambridge, back in the early 1900s. In a rumpled suit, and peering through donnish spectacles as he pours himself a sizeable drink, Parry could be the author himself, the medievalist scholar with a penchant for writing disturbing tales of the supernatural.

James’s stories almost invariably begin in comfortably familiar surroundings, and are often populated by amiable pipe-smoking chaps with an interest in church windows, or ancient stone carvings. Last night’s first story, A View From A Hill, is very much of this type, with the central character an academic who, taking a well-earned break after a stressful term, potters through the idyllic English countryside on his bicycle. All is bucolic bliss. But then, very gradually, the atmosphere changes.  As James put it himself, ‘into this calm environment let the ominous thing put out its head, unobtrusively at first, and then more insistently, until it holds the stage.’  Parry is wonderfully adept at conveying this gradual shift from complacency to unease, what James termed ‘the nicely managed crescendo’. Initially, he presents himself as an amiable old duffer, enlivening his harmless narrative with touches of waggish humour. We hear of the bicycling academic visiting an old friend, a bibulous country squire with a splendidly rustic butler. The mood is placid, even a little complacent. But, almost imperceptibly, an ambiguous detail is introduced into the story, the significance of which is left hanging in the air. The tension mounts up, notch by notch, Parry’s delivery shifts in tone, and you find yourself drawn into a world where not everything is as benign as it seems.

After the interval came The Treasure Of Abbot Thomas, and here Parry has perhaps even more scope for demonstrating the range of his acting skills.  At first, the mood is that of an innocent, bookish enthusiasm for exploring obscure Latin texts.  But before long that exploration leads the protagonist into very dark territory indeed, and he is driven nearly mad by the horrors he experiences.  His terror is vividly conveyed.

In our age of multi-million dollar visual effects, where so much popular entertainment leaves nothing to the imagination, it is refreshing to experience straightforward storytelling at its best.  If you can, catch next Sunday’s show at Tobacco Factory Theatres, for Robert Lloyd Parry is a master of his craft.   ★★★★★      Mike Whitton   28^th October 2019