Haunted

by Eric Chappell              March 2011

Cast:

Matt King (Nigel Burke), Gail Sinden (Mary Burke), Tom Freegard (Lord Byron), Sophie Palmer (Julia Phillips), Adrian Peace (Turner Gould), Fran Loss (Miss Potter)

Producer: Stuart Jackson

Nigel Burke, aspiring playwright, is neurotic and agoraphobic and hasn't written a word for three months. His wife, Mary, is nearing the end of her tether, his agent, Turner, is desperate for him to start writing again, and novelist-turned-playwright Julia Phillips is pestering him for an opinion on her play, as well as showing more than a professional interest in him. As if all this isn't bad enough, Nigel is visited by the mysterious Miss Potter, who knows of Nigel's interest in Byron and gives him a goblet used by the poet.

Drinking from the goblet brings about subtle changes in Nigel's confidence and manner - and then, out of nowhere, Byron himself appears! Part ghost story, part thriller, part battle-of-the-sexes comedy, Haunted is a flippant and exciting play from the author of Natural Causes, Rising Damp, and Only When I Laugh.