Review: Mostly Haunted

Reviewed by John Wakefield

‘Set in 2003, Mostly Haunted follows the trials and tribulations of the stars of BeingTV+1's 'Hit Show of 1998 (Within the Paranormal Investigation Genre)' as they try to climb their way back up the celebrity ladder.

An unexpected death in an isolated seaside castle brings the Mostly Haunted team back together after five year's hiatus. They're on the hunt for ghosts but don't plan on finding skeletons (in the closet...metaphorically). Join them as they journey through Sw-on-Sea's haunted DeTrouse Castle, meeting ghouls and ghosts alike. There's murder in the air and their own history comes back to haunt them.’

Dramasoc’s ODN this week was certainly one of unexpected pleasure.

While not as polished as the weekend performances it undoubtedly demonstrated the power of these free evenings to entertain.

Stephanie Bartlett and Louis Gray’s script was full to the brim with surreal lines and even more unbelievable plot twists than you could shake a golf club at. The comedy, which mixed reality TV with the 50s (or 1997) B Movie genre left a packed barn in fits of hilarity.

While the show definitely felt a little unrehearsed this added to the mood of the production. Literal corpsing and unexpected reanimation of the dead cast members gave the whole performance a feeling of fun and daring to a script which while at some moments gleamed with comic brilliance, at other seemed to flag under the pressure of the hilarious but unwieldy plot.

The Set was incredibly good for an ODN considering they only had the barn for the day and it served its purpose as beautifully as the first thing that came into your mind when you first saw it was ‘that looks just like a castle next to a Gourmet Burger Kitchen!’.

The cast too did a fantastic job in portraying the embodiment of the genres stereotypical presenters and characters whilst at moments surprising the audience such as Gray’s characters deep and moving monologue about the social death of Gerry Halliwell. Even when corpsing meant that the audience’s laughter drowned out the casts attempts to continue the scripted dialogue their ad lib witticisms added to the play even if at moments it came at the cost of the clarity of the plot.

Despite its failings ‘Mostly Haunted’ stood up as a piece of hilarious student written theatre and demonstrated that ODN’s can be as entertaining as anything else in the barn. Certainly, it was an enjoyable evening with a play with great comic potential even if it needs a little refinement.

If you’d walked past the barn between 7:30 and 8:30 on Monday night you would have heard uproarious laughter and that certainly must be the best judge of any comedy. If the production makes a return to York in the future, as I hope it will, if in a slightly more refined form, its one to watch out for!