Theatre Review: Oh Whistle...at Tobacco Factory Theatres, Bristol

This review was first written for The Reviews Hub

 

 

Robert Lloyd Parry returns to the Tobacco Factory with Nunkie Theatre Company’s production of two more enjoyably chilling ghost stories from Victorian author M R James.

In his one-man storytelling, Parry is the very epitome of the antiquarian scholar. He steps effortlessly out from the Factory Theatre darkness, straight into James’ shoes; sitting in a wing-back chair by candlelight, sipping whisky poured from a decanter and regaling us as though we are his old chums from King’s College, Cambridge.

His first story, The Ash Tree, is a tale of revenge through the generations. A grand old country house, Castringham Hall in Suffolk, is inherited by Sir Richard Fell, who finds that the house has been cursed since his grandfather, Sir Matthew, condemned a woman to death for witchcraft. Sir Richard nevertheless decides to sleep in the very bedroom where his ancestor died a painful death, only to find he is haunted by a presence inside the ash tree outside his bedroom window.

While rarely moving out of his chair, Parry’s delivery doesn’t miss a beat. He’s lively and fluent, letting his audience fill in the blanks; easing us into moments of laughter, before heightening the tension and making us jump. Lighting and sound effects are minimal; Parry uses simple props like a tin box full of papers to create his startling percussion. In blowing out all but one candle and cleverly recreating Sir Richard’s night of terror, Parry lays bare with shivering intensity the hideous secrets forcibly given up by the tree.

Parry’s second story is one of M R James’ most well-known; Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad; another tale where nocturnal terror looms large. On the Suffolk coast, Professor Parkins is investigating a preceptory, or meeting place, thought to be attributed to the Knights Templar. There he unearths a whistle that bears a Latin inscription translated as ‘Who is this who is coming?’ Reasoning that the best way to find out is to blow the whistle, Parkins unwittingly unleashes supernatural forces beyond his wildest imaginings.

This is another masterful performance by Parry, who has proved so popular with Bristol audiences that an additional date was added to his schedule. However, the two stories in Oh Whistle… while both absorbing individually, perhaps don’t provide enough of a contrast with each other to sustain the audience after the interval.

Nevertheless, Parry is well worth catching for his characterful performance and the consistent quality of his story-telling; testament, if it were needed, to the universal appeal of a well-told, pleasingly spine-tingling ghost story.

Reviewed on 6 March 2016 | Image: Shelagh Bidwell

 

Theatre Review: Casting The Runes at Tobacco Factory Theatres, Bristol

This review was first written for the Public Reviews

Robert Lloyd Parry tingles the spine in a one-man retelling of two chilling tales from the pen of ghost story writer extraordinaire M R James.

Seated in a wing-backed chair with a single candle lighting the darkness and a whisky decanter beside him on a table scattered with papers, Lloyd Parry is the image of the scholarly antiquarian author who first performed the stories to amuse his Cambridge friends in the years leading up to World War One.

Without any preamble, he leaps straight into a fluent and fast-paced delivery of the first story of the evening, the eponymous Casting the Runes. The self-styled Abbot of Lufford, a certain Mr Karswell, does not take kindly to being overlooked in academic circles for his paper concerning the truth about alchemy.

When Mr Dunning, the man who rejected Karswell’s work, experiences a series of increasingly sinister events which haunt his well-being, he seeks out the brother of John Harrington, a man who died in mysterious circumstances after writing a damning review of Karswell’s book on witchcraft. But, in uncovering the supernatural secret of Harrington’s demise, the pair begin to realise the full, vengeful horror of Dunning’s own predicament.

Lloyd Parry recounts his tale as if talking to old friends in the corner of his library; his word-perfect delivery is mesmerising. It’s eerily dark and, as his story tumbles forth, there are minimal changes to the lighting and no sound other than his voice. In this simple setting, he single-handedly holds the audience’s silent and rapt attention from the start.

If Casting the Runes is known for being the story upon which the 1957 horror film Night of the Demon is based, the second story is less familiar but equally riveting. The Residence at Whitminster is a tale of a peaceful English church and community overcome with strange happenings. There is the sacrifice of a cockerel called Hannibal and a room full of sawflies no bigger than an inch long – or could one of them grow to be the size of a man?

Once again, the dark magic of M R James’ story is magnified by Lloyd Parry’s telling, the ghosts created by what isn’t said and the power of your own imagination. We are warned in advance to expect moments of “pleasing terror” and this description is very apt; on leaving the theatre, there is a feeling of having been enjoyably enthralled, but still a desire to steer clear of dark shadows.

M R James is familiar ground for Lloyd Parry; the majority of his one-man shows feature the author’s stories and tap into a gothic preoccupation with the supernatural. By the evidence of Casting the Runes, it’s a spellbinding and winning combination which is earning him a well-deserved following.

Reviewed on 26^th April 2015.