Review: The Ghost of Graves End at the Unity Theatre ****1/2

Two months after his one-woman tragi-comedy Stella roared on to the Unity stage, busy Liverpool playwright Robert Farquhar is back with another whirlwind of a show.

And if you are a fan of Farquhar, and particularly his work with - the now sadly defunct – Big Wow, a sucker for a chilling theatrical experience or a lover of off-the-wall comedy, you won’t want to miss it.

Ostensibly an affectionate homage to, and send-up of, ghost stories like Susan Hill’s ever popular The Woman in Black (returning, incidentally, to the Playhouse next month), The Ghost of Graves End is a pacy and smart supernatural thriller with its tongue planted firmly in its cheek.

Style-wise, it has echoes of the frenetic and creative physical delivery of The 39 Steps.

Although, and let’s get this one slightly discordant note out of the way early on, both The Woman in Black and particularly The 39 Steps have tighter running times. Here, each half is practically an hour and while very enjoyable, there are scenes that feel somewhat over-egged and could be pared without losing their impact.

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It’s the 1890-somethings, and penniless wannabe poet and man-about-London Charles Connor reluctantly takes a position as tutor to William, a precocious orphan boy who lives at the spooky, labyrinthine Graves End Manor in deepest, foggiest, creepiest Mellow-by-the-Marsh. It’s definitely a long way from civilisation.

Why did his predecessor leave so suddenly? Who is the mysterious, shadowy ‘woman in very dark clothing’ he spies at the window? What is it that is haunting his dreams? And why is Charles such a lightweight drinker?

Most of these mysteries (well, all but the alcohol toleration) are solved over the course of a deliciously larky but also genuinely spooky couple of hours.

Above: Greg Jones as Charles Connor and Tim Lynskey as a cabbie. Top: Jones and Sian Weedon as Mrs Doubry.

The larkiness comes from Peccadillo Theatre Company’s six-strong troupe of players who, under Lucy Thatcher’s propulsive direction and keenly choreographed scenes and sequences, bring Farquhar’s imagined world to life with evident relish and perfect comedy timing.

Back in 2019, I saw Greg Jones play poetry-spouting airman Peter Carter in an imaginatively staged version of A Matter of Life and Death at LIPA.

Here he brings a similar sense of bright-eyed earnestness, confusion and frustrated sincerity to the role of Charles, the outsider who finds himself embroiled in something strange and otherworldly.

He also more than holds his own in the face of the wily, wild-eyed comedy whirlwind that is Tim Lynskey, one of Farquhar’s Big Wow partners in crime who has emerged from ‘retirement’ (moonlighting from his day job teaching acting at LIPA Sixth Form College – half of whom seemed to be in the audience on opening night) to appear in his old friend’s latest show.

Above: The cast of The Ghost of Groves End.

Lynskey appears first as the putative author/narrator of the piece, a sort-of Victorian vaudevillian grandiose showman, then pops up as a grumbling rural cabbie and carousing husband among other vignettes. How much of his performance is scripted and how much is freewheeling madness is hard to tell, but the audience certainly loves it all.

He also plays his part in a vocally nimble Greek chorus made up of cast members who appear in various combinations throughout the evening to add context, progress the narrative and evoke crowds and congregations.

Meanwhile Sian Weedon has great fun as the manor’s loyal housekeeper Mrs Doubry (shades of Julie Walters-meets-Father Ted’s Mrs Doyle) and Georgia Chadwick is a hoot as Charles’s ruthless fiancée and convincingly unnerving as the seemingly sweet William.

The sense of spookiness that runs through the play is effected by the performers on stage working in close collaboration with Laurence Noble’s clever and perfectly timed lighting and sound design. Together they create some genuinely jump-in-your-seat/gasp-out-loud moments.

So, hats off to Farquahar, Thatcher and the team for delivering a splendid slice of supernatural silliness to kick off a year of, hopefully, equally enjoyable live theatre.