MORE… GHOST STORIES BY CANDLELIGHT 26 OCT 2024

More…Ghost Stories by Candlelight

By Tassa Deparis, James McDermott, Eloise Pennycott and Aisha Zia

Old Divinity School, Saturday 26th October: 7.30pm
Age recommendation: 14+ | Trigger warning: references to rape and Covid-19.

In Cambridge for one night only, Emily Ling Williams will direct actor-musicians Becky Barry and Sharan Phull in a stirring evening at the Old Divinity School, bringing together four contemporary ghost stories from Tassa Deparis, James McDermott, Eloise Pennycott and Aisha Zia, each set in a different location in the company’s home region. The creative team is led by Olivier-nominated Emily Ling-Williams (Director) and completed by Anna Pool (Musical Director, Composer and Sound Designer), Mona Camille (Designer), Tom Clutterbuck (Lighting Consultant and Production Manager), Lora Aziz (Wildlife and Forklore Consultant), and HighTide’s Artistic Director Clare Slater (Dramaturgy). More… Ghost Stories is a HighTide production in association with Eastern Angles, Harlow Playhouse, Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, Shakespeare’s Globe and is a Theatre Green Book production.

About More… Ghost Stories

Following the sell-out success of last year’s tour, HighTide brings you four brand new stories in More…Ghost Stories by Candlelight.

Taking inspiration from ghost stories of old, this contemporary production brings the genre right into the modern age, with settings that represent the writers’ own connections to the East of England, from urban Cambridge to the Essex salt-marsh; leafy Suffolk villages to the bracing North-Norfolk coast.

Following last year’s success, this Autumn’s tour returns to many venues including Theatre Royal Bury St Edmonds and the Seagull Theatre. The production will also play in atmospheric non-theatrical spaces such as Colchester’s Layer Marney Towers and Old Divinity Hall in Cambridge.

The tour will culminate in a run in the candlelit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe from 30 October until 2 November.

A Theatre Green Book production, conceived and made to reduce carbon impacts.

Tassa Deparis is HighTide’s associate artist for 2024. Her theatre credits include Two Under Two (Virtual Collaborators Festival), The Daughter Abroad (Theatre503), This Wall (The English Theatre, Berlin), and Mothers Milk (ArtsDepot).

James McDermott’s plays published by Samuel French include Jab (Finborough Theatre), Time and Tide (Park Theatre, East of England tour) and Rubber Ring (Pleasance Theatre, UK tour – Winner of Pulse Festival’s Suitcase Prize). His other plays include Ghosted (St George’s Theatre Great Yarmouth, Out There Festival), Robin Good: The Politico-Panto (Norwich Playhouse), Senseless (Norfolk and Norwich Festival), and the relocation to East Anglia of Mark Crawford’s Canadian comedy The Birds and The Bees (New Wolsey Theatre, East of England tour). For television, his credits include EastEnders.

Eloise Pennycott makes work championing deaf and queer perspectives, working with HighTide, Deafinitely Theatre, CRIPtic Arts. Her plays include Butterflies (Deafinitely Theatre Young Company) and Barrier(s) (Dorfman Theatre, Winner of National Theatre’s New Views competition).

Aisha Zia has been commissioned by HighTide, Hampstead, Fuel, Paines Plough, Curve Leicester, Contact Manchester and is currently a Royal Literary Fund Fellow. She is a former resident artist at Somerset House Studios in London, Theatre503’s 503Five, Associate Artist at the Foundation Jan Michalski in Switzerland. Her plays include Our Glass House (Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Winner of Special Commendation from Amnesty International), and No Guts, No Heart, No Glory (Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Winner of The Scotsman Fringe First Award, Women of the World Festival at Southbank Centre, Live from TVC Battersea Arts Centre).

Becky Barry is a multi-disciplinary theatre maker and BSL / English interpreter. Theatre credits include Perfect Show for Rachel and Nightshift (ZooCo), The Dao of Unrepresentative British Chinese Experience (Kakilang), Alice in Wonderland, Robin Hood and the Major Oak, The Emperor’s New Clothes, Treasure Island, The Jungle Book (Derby Theatre), The Frogs (Spy Monkey), The Jew of Malta, Snow in Midsummer, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Dido Queen of Carthage (RSC), Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, Christmas at the Snow Globe, Macbeth, The Duchess of Malfi (Shakespeare’s Globe), Twelfth Night (Southwark Playhouse), The Government Inspector, Tommy (Ramps on the Moon), The Iron Man (Graeae), Mother Courage and Her Children (Red Ladder), The Woman Who Turned Into A Chicken (Barbican), A Streetcar Named Desire, Mixtape, The Tempest, Astronauts (Royal Exchange Theatre), The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming (Tall Stories), Jack and the Beanstalk, Beauty and the Beast (CAST Doncaster), and The Ugly Duckling (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch).

Sharan Phull’s theatre credits include The Secret Garden (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), My Beautiful Laundrette (Curve Theatre and UK tour), Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (UK tour), The Apology (Arcola Theatre), Bend It Like Beckham: The Musical (Phoenix Theatre), The Show Must Go On! Live (Palace Theatre), 2020: Collection 1 Monologues (Tara Theatre), Halls The Musical (Turbine Theatre), Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth (National Theatre), Am Dram: A Musical Comedy, Pink Sari Revolution, Scrooge: The Musical and, The Importance of Being Earnest (Curve Leicester).

Emily Ling Williams directs. Her theatre credits include A Playlist for the Revolution (Bush Theatre – Olivier Nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Affiliate Theatre), Polko (Roundabout), Wasted (Lyric Hammersmith), The Full Works (Key Workers Cycle) (Almeida Theatre), Moongate Mix (Omnibus Theatre), Behind Closed Doors (Lemon House Theatre), Tell Me When You’re Home (Young Vic), Lucky Cigarette (UK tour) and Preach (Rose Bruford Theatre, Hoxton Hall). As an assistant or associate director, her credits include House of Shades (Almeida Theatre), The Apology, The Island Nation (Arcola Theatre), Blood Wedding (Young Vic), The Meeting and The Chalk Garden (Chichester Festival Theatre).

About HighTide

HIGHTIDE is a writer-centred theatre company, based in the East of England. We produce new plays by playwrights from our region, touring across the East and beyond. We run a year-round writer development programme that creates space for East of England playwrights to thrive. We offer creative writing programmes in schools and community groups to build confidence, wellbeing and employability. We are committed to ensuring everyone, from all backgrounds, can participate in the joy and power of theatre. We believe that partnership and collaboration makes better theatre, as well as more lasting, positive social change. HighTide holds the climate crisis in its name; a daily reminder of our responsibility to act now – with imagination and creativity. We see climate and social justice as inextricably linked and believe that theatre can help rehearse a better future for us all.