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The Queen’s Theatre reports sightings of white mists floating down this corridor
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Things that go bump backstage
Haunted West End Theatres.
By Ian Shillito and Becky Walsh.
Tempus Publishing £9.99
LONDON'S Theatreland is supposedly riddled with ghosts; the ubiquitous grey man; the restless spirit of a forgotten understudy, waiting for that “break a leg” that never comes. It’s mostly nonsense, of course, and down to people’s imagination.
Generally, Ian Shillito and Becky Walsh keep an open mind as they carry out all-night vigils at theatrical haunts and talk to cleaners, security guards and actors with stories to tell.
Nowadays, Shillito and Walsh have successful careers in the world of the paranormal. The pair claim to be psychics – using that sixth-sense ability to trace the paranormal, while Walsh takes that further as a psychic medium – meaning she can relay messages from the dead.
Of their theatrical investigations, the Palladium registers a paltry 1/10 while the Shaftesbury Theatre gets 0.
Only the Theatre Royal Haymarket gets the perfect 10, though how much of that is because Judi Dench and Donald Sinden claim to have witnessed the grey frockcoat apparition of former manager John Buckstone? To be fair, actors of that calibre may face ridicule for such a claim, so why say it if not true? Such accounts are testimony to our fascination with ghosts.
The scariest show in town has to be The Woman in Black, which has been playing at the Fortune Theatre since 1989. Surely the actual ghost the theatre claims to have, is merely a result of thought suggestion rather than an actual haunting?
Elsewhere, actors claim to have felt energies on the set of shows like Billy Elliot and Starlight Express. Shillito suggests that method actors exude so much energy it can be left behind in the ether.
The pair do have the experience to back up their research – with a decade working in Theatreland as stage managers at the Dominion Theatre, and on the set of the Queen-inspired musical We Will Rock You.
Shillito claims that once during a performance of “We are the Champions” he felt the presence of Freddie Mercury, while the singer Jenna Lee James says she felt Freddie move through her as she belted out a ballad.
The idea of Mercury rising from the wings is another example of imagination running wild. Ghosts may be attached to something called “place memory”, so apart from a coincidental retrospective musical, what link does Mercury have to this theatre?
In general this is a dullish book, with drab layout and unexciting pictures. Perhaps it’s a useful reference tool for diehard ghost hunters, but it's certainly a dust gatherer on the bookshelves of an American tourist.
PAUL COWLING
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