THE three Ghost stories that Dr Goodman, Professor of Parapsychology, uses to illustrate his lecture to the audience on the power of the paranormal have been greeted by some people as being “harrowing, 80 minutes of nightmare thrills”, and by others as being “as substantial and troubling as the fake ectoplasm manifested by a dodgy medium”.

I have to admit that as a young child I was afraid of the dark, until a wise friend pointed that there was nothing in the room that was not there before the light went out. Even as a teenager there were moments in the cinema when my hands covered my eyes until the threat of the unknown was passed. Having been warned before Dan Tetsell’s Professor Goodman took his place at the rostrum that frightening images and effects would accompany his story telling, I took my seat firmly on the side of the 80 harrowing minutes of nightmare thrills.

The production teams, sound, lighting and video images certainly lived up to those promises, with many sudden visual and or sound effects making you jump to attention in your seat. In contrast, Dan Tetsell’s urbane Professor Goodman went in for few histrionics as he told his three supernational stories taken from interviews with Tony Matthews, a practical night watchman, (played by David Cardy), Eddie Loodmer-Elliott’s Simon Rifkind, a teenage unlicensed driver, eaten out with anxiety, and Clive Mantle’s overworked middle-aged businessman, Mike Priddle, anxiously awaiting the birth of his first child.

Like the rest of the audience I am sworn to secrecy as to how those stories played out, and even more so about the unexpected violent twist in the tail of the script that draws all three stories tighter together.

Be prepared for a few visual and verbal shocks if you decide to visit the Theatre Royal in Bath – which incidentally boasts a ghost or two of its own. Will you find it a terrifying theatrical experience or be sceptical about the whole business of the paranormal? One thing is certain … this production and performances are far too good to be written off as a milk sop second rate presentation. It bends over backwards, and with a great deal of success delivers the sort of thrills that make you think twice before you switch off the bedroom light.

GRP