Frank Woodley

Ghost story with giggles
Frank Woodley is a multi-talented man whose one-man show, Possessed, is a surprising, zany, and dramatic mix of acrobatics, slapstick, song, pathos, wit, and caricature. The wheezing narrator tells us this is a spooky, scary love story. Model boat maker Louis has not left his house for some years and wakes one morning, possessed by the ghost of Phoebe, a stowaway on the Maggie Rose, the model he happens to be working on at the time. They fall in love and find the key for their mutual release, she to heavenly plains and he out the front door.
The narrator's apparent emphysema and the overuse of slapstick detract from this show and it was also a little too long. However, Woodley is a charming, funny man and while the love story draws you in, it's the asides that get the most laughs. Any one of his talents - singer, stand-up, acrobat, actor - is worthy of a show in its own right. I just hope he survives the nightly coccyx pain.
Assembly Rooms, 623 3030, until 25 Aug (not 11 & 19), 6.45pm, £13–£15 (£12‐£13).