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Summerhall – Red Lecture Theatre
Some shows sneak up on you. This was one of them. A good old fashioned ghost story, told with warmth, wit and just the right amount of dread, and honestly one of the best hours we’ve had at the Fringe so far.
Kirsty Mann takes you through her own real life haunted house saga, and what a saga it is. She bought a derelict place in a dodgy part of town, someone had died in it, and she didn’t believe in ghosts. Reader, she believes now. I won’t spoil the details because half the joy of this show is not knowing what’s coming next, but there were proper goosebump moments in here. The hair on the back of my neck actually stood up at one point, which doesn’t happen often.
What makes it work is the balance. It’s genuinely creepy in places, but it never loses its sense of humour, and Mann has that rare gift of making you feel like she’s telling the story just to you, in your living room, rather than performing it to a room full of strangers in a lecture theatre. Traditional Fringe storytelling done properly, no gimmicks needed.
If you’re on the fence about whether a ghost story is your kind of thing, don’t be. This one’s for everyone. Easily five stars from me, no hesitation.