#Review of Jekyll and Hyde By Gary McNair A #Stage Adaptation By @TheGaryMcNair @OriginalTheatre Starring @ForbesMasson @lyceumtheatre @ReadingRep #Theatre #JekyllAndHyde #RobertLouisStevenson

Jekyll and Hyde

By Gary McNair, adapted from the novel by
Robert Louis Stevenson
Directed by Michael Fentiman

I saw this one-man show, starring Forbes Masson on Original Theatre Online.
Discover the synopsis and my review below, as well as a link where you too can watch this great play.

Synopsis

Streaming Online
Drama | Thriller | Classic

Forbes Masson (The Crown, Farm Hall, Newsies) stars in this captivating one-person play, written by Gary McNair.

“Are those little voices in our heads our friends, or our enemies? What if they’re neither, what if they’re both?”

Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh presents Reading Rep Theatre’s production of
JEKYLL & HYDE
By Gary McNair, adapted from the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson
Directed by Michael Fentiman

The classic story of Jekyll & Hyde is turned on its head revealing the depths of one man’s psyche and the lengths we will go to hide our deepest secrets. What will happen to a curious mind as it’s left to its own devices?

A brand new film of this critically acclaimed show, commissioned by Original Theatre in special arrangement with the producers, exclusively streaming on Original Online.

Review

A door, just a lit door in the shadows of darkness in a minimalist set, but a highly significant door nonetheless. All eyes are on this and Forbes Masson in what is an exceptional one man play.

There are quite a few characters that are bestowed upon Forbes Masson to play and each one is deftly portrayed. No need to worry about getting lost as to who’s who, he’s found ways around that, through voice and tone changes and ingenious ways of using props. This has made it easy to follow.

Forbes Masson, shrouded in darkness, pulls you into a wonderfully curated intense atmosphere that builds and builds as the psyche of Jekyll and Hyde are examined. Surprisingly, there’s also some humour within the play, delivered with excellent timing.

Jekyll and Hyde is a haunting, compelling play that I highly recommend.

Watch Here On Original Theatre if you dare to find what lies behind that door and inside the psyche of Jekyll and Hyde…

#Extract from Chapter 4 of Whispers Through Time By Melanie Robertson-King @RobertsoKing #ReadingBetweenTheLines #BlogTour

Extract from Whispers Through Time
By Melanie Robertson-King

Today I am delighted to be able to present the blurb and an extract from chapter 4 of Whispers Through Time, thanks to Lynsey at Reading Between The Lines and the author, Melanie Robertson-King. It sounds mysteriously eerie to me.

Blurb

A historic Canadian property becomes the canvas for a tale that spans generations. In 1914, a tragedy unfolded, leaving scars that linger far beyond the passage of time. In 1947, a visionary purchases the haunted remnants, seeking a new beginning for his family, but his young daughter senses a ghost from the far past. In the present, urban explorers unlock the secrets of the past while running a web design company. Photographs and sketches capture the essence of the property, documenting the whispers of spirits from another era. As the explorers navigate the abandoned corridors and forgotten chambers, the photographs unveil subtle anomalies until supernatural phenomena manifest that defy explanation. Amidst the subtle changes in decor and the flickering candle flames frozen in time, the explorers find themselves entangled in a mystery transcending the boundaries of the living and the dead, forcing the urban explorers to confront the unresolved secrets that echo through the corridors of time. Is a structure just that, or can it house remnants of horror, pain and sin? The urban explorers find they must confront the unresolved secrets that echo through the corridors of time.

From Chapter 4

October 15, 2022 Nicole left the office room hurriedly. That chill. Was she the only one who felt it? The way Connor had spun around and checked the windows said that he did, too. Her sketch showed nothing untoward. The photos wouldn’t show anything either. Something in there was wrong but she couldn’t put her finger on it.
She started up the staircase to the second level of the abandoned mansion. As she ascended the stairs, the air suddenly chilled, and something moved by, jostled her, pushing her against the wall and forcing a startled yelp from her.Nicole dropped onto the step closest and sketched out this bizarre encounter.
It wasn’t Mitch or either one of her brothers. It was a man dressed in a black suit and white shirt, black waistcoat, and black tie. Clothing styled from about one hundred years ago. None of them were dressed in that way. And none of them were transparent. It had to be the guys playing a trick on her. After all, they were pranksters. “Connor, Cooper, Mitch, not funny, guys.”

Nicole stared at the location where the apparition stood. “I mean it guys, this isn’t funny.” “What’s going on, sis?” Connor asked as he poked his head out of the room his sister had just vacated. The ghost or whatever it was faded away.

“Yesterday, upon the stair,” she whispered. “What are you talking about?” Cooper asked as he joined her in the corridor. Nicole’s eyes remained transfixed where the ghost-like being vanished into thin air.
Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there! He wasn’t there again today, I wish, I wish he’d go away! “What gibberish is that you’re spouting?”
“It’s not gibberish. It’s the first stanza of the poem Antigonish by William Hughes Mearns. Don’t you guys know nothin’?”

#BookReview By Lou – The Wayland Babes By Judi Daykin @norfolknovelist @HobeckBooks #TeamHobeck #Halloween #HalloweenStories #SpookyStories #FolkStories #FolkTales #GhostlyTales

The Wayland Babes
By Judi Daykin

Get ready for Halloween with these 5 spooky tales that will have your eyes open as wide as wide can be! Thanks to Hobeck Books for inviting me to review on the blog tour. Find out more in the blurb and my then my review below…

Blurb

Thass bad. Somethin’ dreadful always happens when the chil’un be abroad.

The Wayland Woods in Norfolk – an ancient place where sound and silence, truth and myth, and life and death intertwine.

Some say that the babes of the woods still walk the Earth – wandering through the trees, forever lost, holding hands and searching for help. To see them is a terrible omen. As daylight falls, you may hear the wailing – is it the babes, or just the wind in the trees? What could it mean to see the babes, feel their presence, and be lured deeper into the woods? They look so real. They seem so helpless and desperate.

Five tales tell of five lives touched over five centuries by the so-called babes in the wood. If they beckon, will you follow?

Review

5 tales in time for a spooky Halloween. 5 spine-tingling tales to creep you out. The atmosphere curls around you when reading the stories that take readers back in time. Time mysteriously disappears as though under a spell from when the first page is turned!

There’s a war horse, kings, churches and then there is the mysterious Mary to discover in the 1600’s. Fast forward and travel to the 1800’s for the next story, where the landscape is beautiful along the coastline and the Thames is also busy with barges. There’s and artist, but all is not what it seems. Still in the 1800’s there’s a Vicar and his wife and all seems very grand with a lord and lady, a great big house and a churchyard with a graveyard, with something mysterious.
Fast forward to the next tale set in the 1900’s with a bit of a war time story with an unexpected difference…
Keep moving on to discover Adrian and what he really thinks of Christmas and Pantomimes and what happens next…

There are a lot of mysterious, creepy goings on to see if you dare to follow these Wayland Babes in to their woods through the ages. I dared and was impressed by the sinister, atmospheric nature and calibre of writing to get it just right.

Each story is preceded by a poem that also sets the scene and gets you in the mood for what’s to come. There’s an Afterword about Norfolk Folktales and Pantomimes that makes interesting reading and further puts them into context.

Lou Presents an #Extract of The Farmhouse – A Southern Gothic Ghost Tale By L.B. Stimpson @zooloo2008 @stimsonink @QuestionPress #TheFarmhouseOfPeaceandPlenty

Today on day 1 of this blog tour, I present an extract from The Farmhouse by L.B. Stimpson. Thanks to the author for providing the extract and Zooloo Blogtours for inviting me onto this.
Follow onto the Blurb and Extract and take a peek at a bit of this interesting, evocative, atmospheric book, that may well have your spines tingling, to see who lives in a house like this – an ageing, spooky farmhouse that just may put you in the mood early for Halloween!

Blurb

The house, for all of its solitude, seemed incredibly noisy

The Farmhouse, having stood against time and history for nearly 160 years in the Virginia countryside, was forgotten and abandoned until Kyle and Jenny Dowling moved in during the summer of 1972.

The Dowlings, married just a year, were struggling to repair their broken marriage. It was to be the perfect place, away from it all, to heal their relationship. Jenny would write and Kyle would tend to minor renovations. The rent was cheap.

The realtor warned them, however, against staying beyond the final days of fall.

Extract

Late Spring 1972

Jenny Dowling bit her lower lip in a failed attempt to keep her opinion to herself. She had promised her husband she would keep an open mind, but she didn’t expect the house to be so dilapidated. She swallowed her doubt and concern as they traveled down the gravel road, it was so worn and lonely and if she had to admit, the surrounding fields appeared frozen in time and she and Kyle were emerging through a portal, far from modern society, disturbing the past. Haunted. Yes, haunted was the perfect description. She closed her eyes and tried to imagine the past, when wagons rolled and seclusion was necessary for survival at times.

“Oh, Kyle, you can’t be serious,” she finally blurted out as her eyes wandered along the overgrown driveway beyond the padlocked cattle guard gate which appeared to be holding in the decay spilling forth from the broken windows lining the front of the house. Empty, hollow eyes. Oh, he can’t be serious, but yet, he was.

Kyle reached over and grasped his wife’s hand. “Look, I know it doesn’t, well it might not be the secluded getaway you said you wanted, but it has some charm and it’s cheap and near enough to the city if I need to get back to the university, but I doubt that anyone will be calling. Besides, it has electricity and the realtor said she would cut us a break on the rent if we fixed up a few things.”

Jenny pulled her hand away and cranked open the window. The air was still. It was as though it was holding its breath lest a breeze break through the last shards of broken windows protecting the house against the elements. The house, this house, was exactly what Kyle had always wanted. Of course he would have chosen such a place–lonely and secluded.