Theatre / Haunted
Review: Gurt Haunted, Alma Tavern & Theatre – ‘One of the funniest staged shows I’ve ever seen’
Having watched, reviewed and thoroughly enjoyed a short preview of Gurt Haunted a few weeks ago, I was delighted by the opportunity to see the full show.
Gurt Haunted takes us behind and within the scenes of a paranormal television show, a medium – if you’ll pardon the pun – long overdue effective satirisation.
I’d estimate that I started laughing somewhere between 12 and 14 seconds into the show, and with strong moral effort had contained the giggles by sunrise the following day.
is needed now More than ever
The characters are – and I don’t write this lightly – perfect.
In Toby Robertshaw we have Sir Francis Hailbop, a thinly-veiled mockery of Derek Acorah. The ludicrous lead ghost-hunter pouts and flexes his way through extravagant displays of channeling spirits, retaining fabricated conviction behind-the-scenes with a deeply comic hauteur.
Casey Lloyd brings us Anthony Chestnut, perhaps the most lucid, and therefore most corrupt, of the three characters. Chestnut is a wheeling and dealing host, whose utterly unscrupulous conduct and plain awareness of the confidence-trick in which he is engaged balances Hailbop’s haughtiness with a necessary ruthless and cold pragmatism. Chestnut needs to be under no illusions, because Hailbop lives an illusion.
Finally, Benji Foster plays Arthur Goodun – a gushing and chinless local historian who bumbles his way through literally meaningless historical contributions regarding the venue’s past (described by Goodun as ‘deep’ and ‘rich’, a pairing he used again to describe the venue’s future within 20 seconds).
But it is Foster’s second role, as happy-to-be-here apprentice Reece, that reduces the audience to fits of laughter. Reece is so farcical a character that you can’t be sure he actually knows where he is or what is happening, wearing at almost all times the expression of somebody who thinks they are about to sneeze, but won’t.
I wrote in my previous review that Gurt Haunted is so perfect a paranormal parody that it more-or-less retires the genre, and I stand firmly by that statement. It is certainly one of the funniest staged shows I’ve ever seen. The comic acting throughout is brilliant.
The staging is also excellent – most especially the green plastic squares used to frame the terrified visages of our ghost-hunters, evoking the night-vision trope of the shows Gurt Haunted so terrifically teases. I firmly expect this show to grow and develop into a regular ‘phenomenon’ – and I cannot wait to be there for its future iterations.
Gurt Haunted (age recommendation 18+) is at the Alma Tavern and Theatre on December 5-6 at 8pm. Check www.tickettailor.com for ticket availability.
All photos: Sarah Mawen
Read more: Review: Watch Me Die, Loco Klub – ‘Witty, absurd, challenging and brave’
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