The Ghosts of May

A seductive stranger opens a fantastical world to a tormented woman.

But everything comes at a price…

In the mind of the fantasist, the real and the fanciful become dangerously blurred. As Louise gazes into the night her fancy takes form. Objects move, time changes … and a seductive stranger opens up a world of exhilaration and magic.

Following an acclaimed international tour and 5 star sell-out success at Edinburgh Fringe 2012, The Fantasist comes to The Tolmen Centre for one night only, melding original music, life-sized puppetry, and physical theatre. War Horse’s Robin Guiver teams up with Lecoq and LISPA trained Theatre Temoin in an emotionally powerful exploration of bipolar disorder.

“What the show does so well via the puppetry is to get you right inside Louise’s mind and make you understand both the confusion and yet also the the terrible glimmering lure of a world of bright lights and butterflies.” …Lyn Gardner, The Guardian
★★★★★ ‘Mesmerising’ – The Skinny
★★★★★ ‘Exquisite Theatre’ – Fringe Review
★★★★★ ‘Hilarious, beautiful and utterly astonishing’ – Edinburgh Guide
★★★★★ ‘A must see’ – Scotsgay
★★★★★ ‘Raw genius’ – The Public Reviews
★★★★ ‘Haunting and enchanting’ – WhatsOnStage
★★★★ ‘Ingenious stagecraft’ – Metro

Tickets £10, £8

Written & directed by Bill Scott with music by Jim Carey

Why is the lady so frightened? Who dropped the red scarf?

As part of its special 35^th anniversary program Miracle revisits one of its most popular productions to date, complete with original cast.

It’s 1932 and Edgar Wallace, the Fleet Street editor widely known for his hugely popular and successful whodunits, gets a desperate call from his publisher. With only a weekend to produce a new novel, the indefatigable Wallace leaps into action.

The Case of the Frightened Lady is a hilarious account of the antics of the Wallace household as they flit dizzyingly between reality and fiction, inventing storylines, devising dialogue and arguing over the final denouement.

The result is pure Miracle, a hugely enjoyable mix of plot, character, farce and irony plus some unforgettable songs.

A highly inventive piece of theatre suitable for a family audience of all ages!

‘Bill Scott’s melodramatic, helter-skelter, DIY whodunit is a dizzying tangle of red herrings and black humour.’   – Irish Times

‘There is a great sense of fun, pace and a wonderful connection with the audience.’ –  The Stage

‘Lampooning everything from the cod-thriller to amateur dramatics, The Case of the Frightened Lady is not only hilarious, but is a gripping piece of drama which deserves to be the hit of this summer.’ – Western Morning News

‘Comic theatre of the highest order…littered with razorwire one-liners that literally will have you rolling in the aisles and wiping the tears away.’ –  Brazen City 

Audience feedback

‘I thought that your production might be good or interesting, and I wanted to support local theatre. Instead, what I saw would have graced the stage of any West End theatre…. utterly superb!’

‘We haven’t enjoyed ourselves so much at the theatre in a long while. The dialogue was sharp to the point of being dangerous.’

‘A BRILLIANT production! Very clever staging and production and exceptionally funny   performances by all the cast.’

‘Our faces were ‘aching’ from laughing and smiling so much.  I haven’t enjoyed a performance like yours for many, many years’.

More About the show

It’s 1932 and Edgar Wallace, the Fleet Street editor widely known for his hugely popular thrillers, gets a desperate call from his publisher. With only a weekend to produce a new novel, the indefatigable Wallace leaps into action, enlisting the help of his over-looked wife, pretentious butler, eager gardener and admiring new secretary.

At first this collaboration shows little promise and the story keeps veering off in unlikely directions but, with Wallace at the helm, they get into their stride, flitting dizzyingly between reality and fiction, inventing storylines, devising dialogue and arguing over the final denouement. The result is a typical pot-boiling, page-turning who-dunnit (in this case peppered with Cole Porteresque songs, improvised by the staff on the author’s drawing-room piano).

Faithful to the genre, the Wallace household construct a plot littered with dodgy criminals, false clues and strangers with mysterious pasts. Detective Inspector Tanner’s legendary powers of observation never failed him and, as the corpses pile up, he stays one step ahead of the bungling rural police and prevents the course of justice being perverted by a household of secretive toffs.

Just how far beneath the surface lies the grisly truth? Why is the Lady so frightened? As the curtain falls not only has the culprit been revealed but so has the true state of Edgar’s marriage. 

‘Bill Scott’s melodramatic, helter-skelter, DIY whodunit…is a heaven-sent vehicle for this distinctive brand of precise, choreographed physical theatre. Outrageous flights of theatrical and narrative fancy… a dizzying tangle of red herrings and black humour.’   – The Irish Times

‘Comic theatre of the highest order…littered with razorwire one-liners that literally will have you rolling in the aisles and wiping the tears away.’ –  Brazen City

‘Lampooning everything from the cod-thriller to amateur dramatics, The Case of the Frightened Lady is not only hilarious, but is a gripping piece of drama which deserves to be the hit of this summer.’ – Western Morning News

This five-hander, written by Bill Scott with music by Jim Carey, originally toured small scale venues (indoors and outdoors) across the South West in 05/06. The show has huge potential to delight audiences of all ages, in any scale of venue. It won the Minack Trophy in 2006 and was subsequently produced for a tour of Ireland (North and South) by Bruiser Theatre.

Ticket prices: £12 full £10 concession and £8 under 16’s