Darktales

In a spooky room, where fallen chandeliers topped with ravens sit amid heavy leather furniture, a man is telling a ghost story. It’s about a game of ‘smee’—hide-and-seek in the dark, essentially—that goes ghoulishly awry…

Then the lights snap up, and it turns out this was the end-of-term sign-off for a horror-writing tutor named Alex, a genial academic type in a tweedy jacket. Waiting to meet him is a former student, Jack, now a journalist supposedly interviewing him about his grisly new book. A testy, whisky-fuelled conversation ensues, revealing, a little clunkily, not only how the talented young writer was crushed by his teacher’s criticism, but also his tragic backstory.

But the stage is also haunted by Jack’s ex-girlfriend, to whom he tells his own creepy ghost story. We understand all did not end well with the alluringly vivacious young women, as Darktales slowly reveals its dark centre. But is it the young man who’s on a sinister revenge mission, or is it his teacher who’s hiding a black heart?

Tim Arthur’s play—an updated version of his Fringe hit from 21 years ago—keeps you guessing, with those ghostly interludes cueing you up to suspect foul play. Andrew Paul is excellent as Alex, walking the line between amiable and ominous in an enjoyably gothic entertainment. The twists are numerous, even if too many are baldly spelled out in the final big-reveal sequence that forgets the first rule of any creative writing class: show, don’t tell.