A WARNING TO THE CURIOUS

Roger Lloyd Parry at the Cramphorn

17.01.10

This pair of M R James stories completes Nunkie Theatre Company's ghostly trilogy. Art Historian extraordinaire Roger Lloyd Parry has said that this will be his last such tour - “at least in this lifetime”.

We shall miss him. The format is simple – the bookish study of a garrulous academic, lit only by a few candles. A vague shape behind the armchair, only a coatstand, surely. And with the candlelight come shadows, just as deep and mysterious as those in the Provost's room in King's where these stories were first told.

Aldeburgh – thinly disguised as Seaburgh – is the setting for the title story, in which a young archaeologist foolishly braves the guardians of the ancient crowns of Anglia. The climax, with mist, Martello Tower and skeletal footprints was chilling indeed.

In “Lost Hearts”, the mood is menacing and melancholy. A country house, not unlike Henry James's Bly, two ghostly children, ancient black magic, and the various characters all cleverly suggested by the story-teller's art. I was sorry we didn't have the smell of the incense, though.

Lloyd Parry's skill lies in drawing us affably into this world of apparitions, making M R James's words sound new-minted in the warm Christmas Eve candlelight.