Sam Munster

The Psychic is, sadly, a victim of its marketing. Audiences familiar with the utterly terrifying Ghost Stories may expect another fright-filled experience from the images on social media of seance tables and the ominous scrawl of “mummy wants to kill you” in chalk. The new play from writers Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson is a thriller filled with twists and turns, but it doesn’t deliver much in the way of scares. It’s not intended to. The Psychic isn’t a horror play, but unless you hear those words from Nyman and Dyson in interviews, you’d be forgiven for expecting another Ghost Stories.

I must preface this by saying how massive a fan of Ghost Stories and Dyson and Nyman’s work I am. I have seen their first production eight times and have spent the last 15 years preaching the gospel of Ghost Stories to anyone who will listen (and even if they aren’t listening!). I have never been so frightened in my entire life, as the night I sat in front of Andy Nyman himself playing Professor Goodman. I was so scared I couldn’t stop sweating, I had the most horrendously dry mouth and was on the verge of tears the whole time. Now I revel in its familiar scares and drag my poor friends along, while I watch them out of the corner of my eye at key moments. Gleefully rubbing my hands together, like an evil little fly.

The Psychic follows celebrity medium, Sheila Gold, who is wondering “is any of it real?”. Unlike Ghost Stories’ all-male cast, this play centres around a matriarchal community. Sheila grew up in the Showman community and the story shares some of the traditions and how this can impact the relationships within. This is the true heart to the story and is a fascinating look into a world I had no idea about. Dyson and Nyman have done their research, littering the script with Showman lingo and treating the themes with respect. They even go as far to cast actress Megan Placito as Tara, who came from a Showman background herself. There is a glossary of terms in the theatre foyer, with a list of the key words we’ll hear throughout the play. I now know where the phrase “cushty” comes from!

Megan Placito as Tara. Photograph: Manuel Harlan

The Psychic is a very good, very enjoyable play. I’d purposefully avoided any information about it, but excitedly watched the teasers as they popped up on my Instagram feed. The focus on the seance imagery led me to believe The Psychic would centre around a seance parlour set-piece and hopefully feature some terrifying parlour tricks. Perhaps with something akin to the debunking of “Psychic Cheats” in the Ghost Stories film adaptation. 

As much as I would have loved that version of the play, what we got was an interesting, tense thriller. I was very lucky to attend the press night last week and also a performance with a post-show Q&A with the cast and creatives. Had I only seen the first performance, I think my review would have been much less positive. While I enjoyed the show, I was very disappointed as I felt like the play we got wasn’t the same play we were promised. Speaking to others after both shows, it seems many of the audience were also Ghost Stories fans who expected another spooky scarefest. This was further compounded when audience quotes shared from the press night included “I was genuinely scared”, “I yelped once or twice in my seat”, “genuinely chilling” and “I was grabbing onto [my friend] in fear”. That may well have been the case for those theatre-goers, but from reading reviews and talking to others at both performances, that sentiment seems to be in the minority. On the second watch I was able to approach it as a fun rollercoaster ride thriller and enjoyed it all the more for it, knowing what to expect. The story is exciting, with layered, likeable characters and I feel there was a way of focusing the marketing on this aspect, without giving too much away. I’m doing my best to “keep the secrets” of The Psychic, as we are also asked to do at the end of Ghost Stories. While there are twists in the tale that I’d hate to spoil, as the play doesn’t centre around set-pieces and scares that will lose impact if you know what is coming, I’m not sure the request is as warranted as with Ghost Stories.

The cast really are fantastic, with the three female leads giving stellar performances. Eileen Walsh is brilliant as Sheila Gold, who includes an element of improvisation in every show. She makes balancing dark humour, emotional vulnerability and intensity look easy and is a genuine pleasure to watch. The most recognisable cast member, Frances Barber, is wonderful as the delightfully camp Rosa, commanding the stage and clearly enjoying every minute and every laugh from the audience. The stand-out was Megan Placito as Tara, an incredibly magnetic actress who shows a lot of range and brought her Showman heritage to the stage. This was something I only learned from the post-show Q&A and it seems Megan helped ensure the script and story were a true reflection of Showman life, even giving tarot readings to her castmates at rehearsals. I think this input and dedication to authenticity is a strong point of the play, but (to me) this is another element that could have been key to the marketing.

Eileen Walsh as Sheila Gold. Photograph: Manuel Harlan

The sets are beautiful, with a particularly impressive set in the second act that made me gasp in awe. The illusions were designed by Chris Fisher, the absolute genius behind the nightmare-inducing Paranormal Activity stage show and the incredible (but sadly besmirched) Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. While there were some brilliant moments on stage, I wish I’d been able to lose sleep after seeing tables floating, people disappearing and planchettes and glasses move of their own accord, in the version of the play I thought we were getting. While I appreciate only the more nerdy audience members would see the name Chris Fisher and go “yes, we are ABSOLUTELY getting some mindblowing, terrifying stage magic”, his involvement further supported the scary play expectations.

I am fully aware I have said a lot, without actually saying much at all, but am conscious to not ruin any of the plot. But I would like to manage expectations for anyone hoping to catch the show before the end of its run at the York Theatre Royal on Saturday 23rd May. It’s a really good play that is well written and brilliantly acted. If that’s what you are expecting, then I think you will thoroughly enjoy The Psychic. If you’re expecting Ghost Stories part 2, you may leave the theatre a little disappointed. As someone who has definitely hyperfixated on Ghost Stories and made it part of their personality, I’m painfully conscious of the fact I am approaching The Psychic from a very different place to most people. But I did find solace in the fact that many others have expressed similar thoughts about their expectations from the marketing and how they would have enjoyed it so much more if they weren’t completely thrown by the tone of the play. I expect we’ll see The Psychic tour the UK and I recommend it for a fun (if not scary!) night at the theatre.

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Tickets for The Psychic are available from the York Theatre Royal. Thank you to the Theatre Royal for having me along to the press night.