Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman’s eerie modern-shocker theatre experience perfectly reflects Italo Calvino’s assertion that ‘the more our houses are enlightened, the more their walls ooze ghosts.’ Professor Goodman (Dan Tetsell) is an expert on the paranormal. His research has made him a sceptic, except he cannot explain a handful of experiences that he’s recorded. These are the recollections of night watchman Tony (David Cardy), a neurotic young man Simon (Eddie Loodmer-Elliott) and wealthy older man Mike (Clive Mantle). In his lectures to the audience, he relays their ghost stories. 

Marshalled from the creative whims and eccentricities that brought us The League Of Gentlemen (Dyson) and numerous Derren Brown stage shows (Nyman), Ghost Stories is a work of cultural pedigree, obsession and passion; first performed on stage in 2010, it was later adapted into a 2019 Fangoria Chainsaw Award-winning film. Atmospherics are everything here and the duo’s sheer control of basic stagecraft puts them up there with William Castle or Harry Houdini among showmen who liked to lace their presentations with the terrifying pulse and doubt of spiritualist mischief. 

Dyson and Nyman’s writing style is broad and gothic, teasing and playful of a genre they clearly both love. Professor Goodman represents rationalism and reason in the face of paranormal experiences but Nick Manning’s extraordinary sound design and Scott Penrose’s excellent special effects derail his efforts from the off. Their work, along with that of lighting designer James Farncombe, and set and costume designer Jon Bausor, is creepy beyond the tolerance of mere mortals. Buried deep here is a possible tribute to a key play by one of Scotland’s most gifted 21st-century playwrights and directors. To say what that is would be the spoiler of spoilers.

Ghost Stories is on tour until Saturday 2 August; picture: Hugo Glendinning.