Horror Theatre: The Forgotten Ghosts of E Nesbit

Aim

A spooky team of creative women, LGBTQ+, and disabled folk are bringing to the stage one of the greatest overlooked female horror authors

"This is not your traditional ghost story… there seems to be no reason why any of it should have happened… but that is no reason why it should not be told."

Whenever people think of History’s Great Writers of Horror, they will likely think of M.R James, Charles Dickens, Bram Stoker, Ambrose Bierce, Sheridan La Fanu, Mary Shelley.  Notice anything about that list? There is a wealth of Victorian and Edwardian era female writers of incredible gothic, ghostly, horror but it's the men we remember most  This project is about one of those writers, one who many might recognise for her children’s tales, few may recognise her as a prolific writer of macabre fiction to rival M.R. James.

That is what “The Shadow in the Dark” is – a celebration of Edith Nesbit.  

KEY POINTS AT A GLANCE

• New writing, adapting overlooked work
• All female cast
• The team includes Disabled, international, LGBTQ+ creatives
• The Project runs in October 2023, over Hallowe’en weekend
• Funding helps support grass roots theatre
• It will allow us to effectively stream as well, opening it up to wider audiences
• We need to raise at least £2000 to cover basic costs
• Award winning, experienced team

This will be the first time a full show of Edith Nesbit’s (The Railway Children, 5 Children and It) horror work has been staged at a dedicated live Horror Festival in the U.K

The Shadow in the Dark will be performed by an all-female cast, and adapted using Nesbit’s own words, including her public diaries to shed some light onto the dark corners of her life, and show people that she was more than a Railway child.

The play will feature Edith Nesbit reminiscing about her experiences of horror and the ghostly in her own life, wondering how much was real, and how much the fiction of her works.  She’ll present this memoir, assisted by two performers acting as her voice in the darkness, performing both “The Shadow”, a ghostly tale of heartache and misery, and “In the Dark”, a thrilling confession for fans of True Crime and Murder Podcasts, as Haldane tells us a little more about how they’ve been spending their time.

The show will premiere at The Edinburgh Horror Festival 2023, performing in the unsettling underground vaults of The Banshee Labyrinth, Scotland’s Most Haunted Pub.

The performance dates are Thursday October 26th to Sunday October 29th 2023, at 19:40 [UK Time].

There will also be a digital version of the show - streamed live one night of the Festival, and there will be a digital, professionally recorded version of the show released online afterward - included as a reward for some backers)

The team behind this project is a collaboration between Noisy Ghost Entertainment and Erstwhile Media, two companies responsible for co-founding the Edinburgh Horror Festival itself, currently the U.K’s largest, longest running, and Scotland’s only, festival of live horror theatre. Having helped to organise and programme over 200 horror performances since the Festival began in 2016.  

As separate entities they have each staged and produced sell-out shows across Scotland, and between them have sold out every Edinburgh Horror Festival.  Noisy Ghost Entertainment have recently concluded a tour of the magic and comedy event “A Night of Ghosts” which sold out in Ayr, Belfast, and Glasgow.  Noisy Ghost is the project of Ash Pryce, Theresa Dewa, and R.H. Hale, all of whom are directly involved in this production (See full bios further down).

Noisy Ghost is helping with some of the Victorian and Edwardian inspired props such as creating a unique Wax Cylinder Recorder and experimenting with the famous Magic Lantern to bring unsettling shadow to the stage.

Erstwhile Media is directed by Oliver Giggins, responsible for some of the busiest, and fastest selling shows at both the Horror Festival and elsewhere.  Having written critically acclaimed horror pantomimes, and being shortlisted for playwright awards, Giggins and Erstwhile Media created original horror streamed theatre during the 2020 Lockdown.  

We know how to craft and present high quality, spooky, ghostly, themed shows.  But we need your help to do so.

We want to do this show in the best way we can.  We’ve worked on all different types of budgets, so we’ve created a base budget, and several stretch goals for this project – in the hope that you can see the value in the project as a long term plan, not just for the Horror Festival.  The initial, basic amount we need to cover is £2000 – this allows us to cover the running costs of the project in a production sense.  It means the project can be got off the ground.

That £2000 would cover – cost of printed and digital promotional materials, costumes, sets, food and travel expenses, it would allow us to produce beautiful merchandise (That you can get as a supporter reward!) to better highlight Edith Nesbit, and our talented cast and crew.  It would mean we can offer ticket admission as a Pay What You Can model – opening up theatre to those on any income.  

Crucially it would ensure there is support for our disabled team members by ensuring there are funds to cover taxis when needed, as well as covering additional scripts, or other back up items that may be necessary when some of our team are struggling.  It also relieves any worry or stress associated with staging productions if we know our costs are covered.

It would pay for good quality microphones so we can get a clean audio feed for the live stream of the show.  

If we reach this goal we have stretch goals – we don’t want to just do this project once and that’s it, all over, gone, goodnight, candle blown out.  The horror work of Edith Nesbit deserves to be seen by larger audiences and so, our larger stretch goals will allow us to take the show to next years Edinburgh Festival Fringe, to cover the costs of the actors, the cost of venue hire, and the other myriad costs associated with the World’s Biggest Arts Festival.

We’ve already touched upon the play being fronted by an all female cast.  But you wouldn’t just be supporting women in the arts, or helping to highlight a woman who was often overlooked for her horror writings.  You’d be helping to support a team representing various different backgrounds in society.

Our team consists of international artists, choosing to make Scotland their home, demonstrating the talents of those who bring their unique perspectives to the stage.  

Several of our team have long term chronic illnesses and disabilities, and some are returning to theatre work after a long absence due to these conditions.  Ensuring the project can run smoothly means less stress, anxiety, and worry.  There are also representatives of the LGBTQ+ community.

Highlighting the gender, disability, internationality, or LGBTQ+ identity isn’t being done as an attempt at “look how diverse we are, aren’t we cool?” – it’s being highlighted because these groups have all been massive contributors to the horror genre over the years and horror belongs to everyone- but people in marginalised, or diverse groups, can find a level of comfort and comradery from seeing people like ourselves, especially in such uncertain times.

Your support means a lot.  It really does.  It means we can stage this show, put on this event, and be comfortable and worry-free.  It means supporting female creatives, LGBTQ+ creatives, international creatives, disabled creatives.  It supports new writing, and old stories being seen anew.  It allows us to create work that you get to experience the fruits of via live streams, or free tickets for supporting us.    

In the role of “Edith Nesbit”, Rebecca (R.H) Hale

Rebecca Hale is a performer, author, and once-time-Underground Tour Guide from Edinburgh.  She began her performance career taking tourists into the haunted Underground of Edinburgh’s South Bridge Vaults, gaining a reputation as a strong performer and unsettling teller of terror tales. Since 2007 she has performed as Mephistopheles in Dr. Faustus (2008), The Explorer in an original adaptation of Kafka’s “In the Penal Colony”, and numerous ensemble roles in productions by Noisy Ghost director Ash Pryce.  Under her pen name “R.H. Hale” she has published two Gothic literary horror novels, Church Mouse, books 1 and 2, and a short ghost story on her website, as well as writing numerous episodes of popular web series “Spooky History”. Aside from acting and writing, Rebecca holds a BSc Honours from Kingston University, and is about to begin another science degree.

In the role of “Miss Eastwich”, Skye Morrison

Skye Morrison is thrilled to be working with Erstwhile Media again after a very successful run as Cinderella in Glass Slippers and Silver Bullets in last years Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Edinburgh Horror Festival. She is excited for the opportunity to be collaborating with Noisy Ghost Entertainment alongside Erstwhile Media this year to bring The Shadow in the Dark to life. Skye graduated from the University of the West of Scotland this year with a First Class Honours degree in Performance. She has spent this last year developing her dramaturgy as well as her acting, so being able to delve into an adaptation of a prolific authors work has been a delight. Skye intends to bring an evocative and compelling performance to the Edinburgh Horror Festival this year and hopes that audiences enjoy the performance.

In the role of “Haldane”, Annie Cook

Annie is an actor, director, and producer based in Edinburgh. She graduated in Film & Media at the University of Stirling BA (Hons) before going on to work in improving participatory democracy for governments. She completed a diploma in Acting and Voice graduating with distinction from Trinity London College, Edinburgh Acting School in 2020. Annie recently co-founded her own theatre & film company called Warped Productions LTD and is part of the Frighthouse Productions troupe having done a few stints at the Fringe and Horror Festivals. Some of Annie’s recent credits include playing a giant child-catching rat, a gun slinging hillbilly, a film noir detective, an alien-like-child, a killer-clown and several damsel-like-victims in The Wheel of Misfortune, Joy and Maxine in Sauce and Hot Sauce, Princess Wanda in Wawel Dragon and Grace in Solar Urticaria. You can sometimes see her as a witch known as Blair Witch flying around town witch-touring.

Producer for Noisy Ghost Entertainment, Theresa Dewa

 Theresa Dewa is a theatre producer, and events manager, based in Edinburgh.  Originally from the United States, Theresa began producing work as part of Arcadia University’s annual Hallowe’en charity events, crafting original interactive, haunted house shows. After moving to Scotland in 2017 she volunteered with the Edinburgh Horror Festival, and quickly began working in a more producer based capacity helping to run and organise not just the annual event, but the round the year events as well. She has produced original, site specific work at Lauriston Castle, as well as programming events at the Banshee Labyrinth with the EHF.  She has also co produced, and/or stage managed multiple shows with the company Noisy Ghost Entertainment which she founded with Ash and Rebecca in 2020.

Producer, Director, Oliver Giggins

Oliver Giggins is a European writer/director for film and theatre interested in history, literature, comedy and drama. Active in the industry since 2010, his writing and directing work include horror-pantomime Frankomime's Monster (the most attended event of the Edinburgh Horror Festival 2018, as well as a sell-out show at EHF 2018 and 2020), absurdist comedy play Chekhov Got His Gun (long-listed for the 2019 Bruntwood Award for Playwriting and shortlisted for 2021 Through The Mill Playwriting Award), family-friendly comedy Glass Slippers and Silver Bullets (which sold out in the Edinburgh Fringe 2022) and the short film script Permission (one of the winners of Qalbi Productions Unsolicited Scripts callout in 2023). As well as his less-traditional versions of Frankenstein and Cinderella, he has also written a more orthodox one-person adaption of Oscar Wilde's The Canterville Ghost, which did several successful runs at the Edinburgh Horror Festival and Feast of Gothic Horror between 2018 and 2021.

Producer, Director, Ash Pryce

Ash Pryce is an award winning director, magician, and co-founder of the Edinburgh Horror Festival.  He has directed and produced live theatre for over 20 years, starting in Leicester shortly after completing an HND in Performing Arts. In 2016 he completed a B.A (Hons) in Drama and Performance. He now mostly works as a magician focused on horror themed seance illusions and hosts the popular occult YouTube series "Spooky History".  In 2017 he fused his love of theatre, ghosts, and magic together for his original play "First Time Buyers" which was performed at two Edinburgh Festival Fringes. He regularly performs magic in castles, palaces, underground vaults, and plain old regular stages in Edinburgh and across the U.K.

This project successfully funded on 2nd October 2023