Ghost About The House
Kings Head Theatre, 7 June – 30 June 2018
Ghost About The House by playwright Matthew Campling is billed as a hilarious, sexy, supernatural gay comedy. It skilfully employs a narrative device I’ve noticed popping up in a few new queer theatre productions recently, that being to set the action across two time periods. Such was the case with Gus Gowland’s excellent Pieces of String, and also the dramatic device employed by the upcoming musical Closets. Like Pieces Of String, World War 2 is the backdrop for one time zone, the other being the modern day, although Campling’s play is very specific in it’s setting of Islington in 2016 during the run up to the referendum on Europe. Both plays find themselves taking place in the same location across the two time periods and whilst it is the occupants of a house that are being haunted in both, it is by the presence of a spectre in this play rather than the unravelling revaluations about a deceased family member in Pieces Of String. The most defining difference between the two however is that Ghost About The House is very much played for laughs. That said, it’s not without a wit and a charm that warms the audience to the characters as this comedy unfolds.
The backbone to the story is that the ghost of Ian, played by Joshua Glenister, still haunts the house he lived in with his mother Lady Millicent Lancaster back in 1936, impeccably played by Sioned Jones. The house is now occupied by male couple Edward played by Matthew Gibbs and Alex played by Timothy Blore, who, despite sharing the house, have split partly due to Alex’s obsession with the house being haunted. When Edward brings back new lover Lenny however, the ghost is reminded of the circumstances surrounding his own long-lost love, his family butler Leonard, to whom modern day Lenny bares an uncanny resemblance.
This is not to difficult a concept for the audience to grasp as both Leonard and Lenny are played by actor Joe Wiltshire Smith, and in fact all of the five strong cast double-up as characters across the two time zones with Ian, alive and dead, being a constant presence throughout. Whilst it’s not an uncommon occurrence for cast members in off West End plays to double up on the parts they play, whether or not that be for artistic or financial reasons, what was most notable and almost breathtaking in this production was the frequency with which the narrative bounced between the two time zones and the seemingly breakneck speed at which the actors could immaculately change into the costumes of their other character. No small feat given the formal period attire required for 1936 and the more casual clothing of 2016. At such a speed I could have easily forgiven any of the actors if they had occasionally slipped-up by referring to another character by the wrong name, or returning to the stage with their hair in the wrong timezones style, but despite this constant swapping of character, accent and apparel were always close to faultless, keeping all the comedy as written and directed instead of the production descending into an unintentional version of The Play That Goes Wrong… well almost. Blore quite literally 'slipped-up' when he took a nasty fall departing the stage as Alex, slipping on water that had been poured over his head just moments before, but he recovered in style, impressively even managing to find an extra laugh whilst keeping very much in character, for which he was rewarded with a spontaneous round of applause.
Joshua Glenister made for a marvellously mischievous sprite-like ghost and despite being the only actor to essentially play the same character across both time zones, he was also not spared the rapid changes between both, transforming from the smartly dressed young aristocrat of the thirties to being clad in only his underwear as the modern day ghost, (although the production team might need to think again if the ‘sexy’ referred to in the promotional material was in reference to the large white Y-Fronts the good looking Glenister finds himself spending much of his stage time in).
I think to call this just a farce would be to miss some of the more subtle moments Ghost About The House has been imbued with, that being of love not only unrequited, but in the case of Ian and Leonard in 1936, one that dare not speak it’s name. That said this is clearly predominately written to be a light comedy, which is just as skilfully brought to life by director Scott Le Crass who manages to bring this fast paced comedy from page to stage in style and without ever loosing control of it.
★★★★
photographs: Bonnie Britain