Edith Nesbit is best known as a writer of children’s fiction, but alongside her classic novels such as The Railway Children, she explored a variety of genres, including horror. The Shadow in the Dark is comprised of spoken word adaptations of several such stories, told by a trio of actors.
Edith (Rebecca Hale) sits at a wax cylinder machine, surrounded by candles. She speaks into the recording device, telling us of her memories of childhood, and of how she became afraid of the dark.
Hale’s Edith speaks in the way I always imagined she would. In her crisp accent, she is soothing and deliberate. She gives the impression that she is telling a bedtime story, but the atmosphere is sinister. In The Mummies at Bordeaux, she tells of a creepy childhood encounter in a charnel house, that remained with her throughout her life. In this piece, the description is especially vivid, and enhanced by subtle movements. I was left with strong impression, in my mind’s eye, of the place Edith visits, and of the corpses she encounters. In her black Victorian dress, with pale skin and dark-ringed eyes, Edith herself has a ghostly appearance.
The setting for The Shadow is a newly built, warm and welcoming home, where something is not quite right. Miss Eastwich (Sky Morrison) reluctantly tells a group of eager children of the haunting that took place there. A shadowy figure haunts a pair of newlyweds, leaving each of them thinking that the other is mad. Morrison tells the story expertly and has a truly terrifying scream. The seemingly amorphous shadow is represented on stage by a silhouette of a figure wearing a top hat, but I would have preferred this to have been left to the imagination.
In the Dark was my favourite tale. Haldane (Annie Cook) is an unrepentant, seemingly psychopathic murderer who finds themself haunted by reappearances of the body they thought they had ingeniously disposed of. I enjoyed the sound effect of a creaking casket opening. Cook relishes the role, giving a frantic, unsettling performance as a character who may be mad, haunted or both, but who is certainly malevolent.
I enjoyed hearing these tales brought to life, and I am in awe of Nesbit’s unique storytelling voice, which was part of my childhood. The works were adapted by Oliver Giggins, who directed the pieces along with Ash Pryce, and the team has done an excellent job of bringing these scary stories to the stage. I am now eager to re-read Five Children and It, and to seek out more of Nesbit’s less-known works.
Reviewer: Wendy McEwan
Reviewed: 27th October 2023
North West End UK Rating: