Theatre Royal, Brighton, November 7, 2021

 

Just when you thought it was safe…

… to go back onto a theatre without getting a heart-attack… the globally successful podcast hits the road for a series of interactive live shows to present and debate the case, and share new evidence.

It’s a must-see for fans of the podcast, which presented this paranormal ‘cold case’ that ran from 1956 to 1968 for dissection. If you’ve been living under a rock (and let’s face it, it feels like some of us have been in the last 18 months) the focus is one Shirley Hitchings, formerly of 63 Wycliffe Road, Battersea, who was hounded for 12 years by ‘Donald’, a prolific and enigmatic poltergeist.

While visual evidence could be described and shared on the website when the audio episodes aired, the ability to view images and footage gives the roadshow a new twist. For example, we could experience equivalent sound levels to get a realistic idea of what kind of banging would have been loud enough to have woken the neighbours, as happened in 1956.

It also allows Ciaran O’Keeffe to scare the crap out of you with the fear experiment he’d subjected Danny Robins to on the podcast. Can you just wait while I peel my heart off the ceiling please, before the next jump-scare?

Our other expert Evelyn Hollow was also on stage to provide a balanced view as some of the key elements of the case are debated. Remember hammer-toe-gate, and the extraordinary noises a clicking toe bone was supposed to have been capable of? I’m with Evelyn, that’s just not cutting it!

Of course it’s not possible to fit everything from the entire podcast in to a live show, but it was lovely to see Shirley speak, as an interview with her answering some of the most frequently asked questions about the case was shown. There was also a unique opportunity to interact with the team, all of whom were open, gracious and generous with their time. The thing we all share is the fascination with the subject and I can’t see that coming to an end any time soon.

That new evidence? OK so it’s not new evidence directly relating to Donald per-se, but it’s too close for comfort for me. That many poltergeist-like happenings so very close to Wycliffe Road? Something is rotten in the state of Battersea and all this just makes me eager for more investigation.

Verdict: Nightmare fuel delivered via roadshow to a theatre near you! 8/10

Claire Smith