Edgar Allan Poe’s stories are spooky and delightfully macabre, and it is this quality, combined with beautifully crafted puppetry, which shines through in the remarkable A Ghost Among The Living.
Staged by Box Tale Soup, the play threads five dark Poe tales through a haunted narrator (Noel Byrne), weaving through the gothic writer’s sinister catalogue with ease while utilising a blend of different puppetry styles to create an absorbing and engrossing hour of theatre.
The show explores five of Poe’s works (‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, ‘The Cask of Amontillado’, ‘Ligeia’, ‘The Masque of the Red Death’, and ‘The Raven’) and succeeds in delving into each over the hour, pulling out the nucleus of every story and bringing it to life through verbal storytelling and excellent puppetry. Some of these stories are more well-known than others, yet the clarity of each retelling is sharp and precise, absorbing us further into Poe’s dark tales and the narrator’s madness.
As one of the two leads, Byrne is the play’s figurehead, performing as the tormented narrator. Byrne is captivating while also excelling in his puppetry skills. His narrator is frantic and fraught, but Byrne lights this match slowly, allowing the character’s anguish to build to a thrilling climax.
This tension is developed further by the stunning, ghoulish presence of Antonia Christophers, who appears to mimic the ghostly presence of the madness and guilt tormenting not just Poe’s protagonists, but the show’s lead as well. It is a deft touch, never truly clarifying what Christophers’s role is, instead using her to create a permanent sense of unease and intrigue.
As well as the superb leading pair, it is the gorgeous combination of puppetry and technical design that truly shines through. The careful, intricate crafting of the puppets works to quickly invite audiences into Poe’s dark world, moving from the goofy and charming characters of ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ to the looming raven that towers over the stage.
Indeed, it is this structural pacing which proves to be the genius of the show. Placing ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ as the opening story allows audiences to settle into the art form, both by using an accessible tale and by instantly charming us with the puppetry on display. As the piece unfolds, the darkness deepens through the increasing menace of the puppets, from the terrifyingly blank face of Ligeia to the deathly raven.
Moreover, the subtle design of the set and brilliant small details, such as hidden clasps and hooks, mean it can be quickly moved to help convey each of the five tales. Gothic architectural elements frame the scenes, giving audiences the distinct feeling that we are peeking directly into the narrator’s madness. This is magnified by the beautiful use of on-stage smoke, looming and lingering above the stage and into the audience to reiterate the gloomy setting.
A Ghost Among The Living is a captivating and darkly charming piece of theatre that pays homage to one of horror’s greatest writers. A must-see gem of the Fringe, it is both a delightful and frightening dive into Poe’s haunting works.
