WATCH: So do you believe in ghosts?

Billed as an experiential ghost story, it explores the fact that pretty much every single theatre there is comes complete with its very own ghost story. Dates on tour include Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre on June 6.

Show producer James Taylor said: “Are you feeling brave? If you are, join us as we tell you all the secrets of what goes on when a theatre goes dark, when the only thing to guide you is the Ghost Light. The Ghost Light is a theatre tradition whereby theatre stages are lit with a single light even when there is no performance taking place that night. Tradition has it that it affords ghosts the opportunity to perform when the theatre is shut and, in doing so, keeps mischievous spirits away. We like to think of it as lighting the way for the ghosts who call the theatre their home. Audiences are asked to follow the rules: keeping their hands inside the car, so to speak. If they do, they will be safe, as Do You Believe in Ghosts? tells the tales that every theatre has to tell.”

As director Julian Woolford explains, the two performers had become interested in the great tradition of the theatre ghost: “As a performer one of them had seen that there is barely a theatre in the country that doesn't have a ghost story attached to it and I've been thinking a lot about why.

"I think it's the fact that there is an energy attached to a theatre. We have a term in theatre academia which is about ghosting.

"If you do play which is about real people then you've got the ghosts of those real people but if you're doing something like Hamlet, which obviously has got a ghost in it anyway, then in a way you are playing the ghost of those characters and also the ghosts of everyone else who's ever played those characters. And when the critics are reviewing Hamlet what they're really doing is comparing the performance with the ghosts of all the other performances that they have seen. And I do think that there is a sense particularly in older theatres that every time a particular play is staged, there is an energy from everything has gone on before on that stage.

"And if you happen to be in a theatre when there is not a show on, which is not something that a lot of people get a chance to do, there is still a feeling of energy that comes from the building.”

The demand for show has certainly reflected our fascination with ghosts: “We are doing about 160 shows between May and April next year, with I think something like 105 before Christmas.” As for whether Julian himself believes in ghosts, he is not prepared to say just yet: “The question is not whether I believe in ghosts. It is whether the audience believes in ghosts and it's so interesting that statistically younger people are much more likely to believe in ghosts than older people. The show is entertainment. It's hopefully something that scares people a little bit and I hope it has moments that really grip the audience. It leaves a lot of questions for audiences to ponder and I hope that people will be talking about it on the way home but there are also bits of theatre history that are really interesting.”

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