Things That Go Bump (plays)
Encyclopedia
Things That Go Bump is a season of plays (often regarded as a trilogy) performed in 2008 by British
playwright
Alan Ayckbourn
.
Unlike Ayckbourn's previous trilogies, where all three plays were written for the same season, the three plays in this set were written over a period of fourteen years. The first play, Haunting Julia
, was written in 1994, and Snake in the Grass was written in 2002 as a companion piece. Finally, in 2008, a third play, Life and Beth
, was written combining the six actors in the other two plays, and all three plays were performed as a trilogy at the Stephen Joseph Theatre
. The plays shared the themes of ghosts, but the stories and characters themselves were unconnected.
The history of the trilogy began in 1994, when the Stephen Joseph Theatre
was still at its old Westwood site. Haunting Julia
was written following inspiration from Stephen Mallatratt
's stage adaptation of Susan Hill
's The Woman in Black
, and premièred at the theatre seven years earlier. His interest came from what he considered Mallatratt's ability to make audiences jump through good acting and tension rather than special effects. However, Haunting Julia ended up being dominated by the three living men and their relationship to Julia - a brilliant musician who took her life aged nineteen - rather than the appearances of any ghosts.
After a première with mixed success in 1994 and a more successful revival in 1999, now at the theatre's current site, Ayckbourn followed this play up in 2002 with Snake in the Grass. This was partly due to a wish to write a female equivalent of Julia, partly due to the continuing success of The Woman in Black, and partly due to the success that Yasmina Reza
's play 'Art'
was enjoying with a small cast. Mirroring the original play, Snake featured three women, and the "ghost" was the father of two of them. However, in keeping with Ayckbourn's tendency to move more contemporary themes, the play was arguably a much darker one, covering themes of sexual abuse
and domestic violence
.
For some time afterwards, Ayckbourn considered writing a third ghost play that would combine the cast of the previous two plays, and eventually decided to do so after Susie Blake
(Miriam in the original Snake in the Grass) asked about reprising her role. It was announced in December 2007 that the play would be performed as part of next summer's season, and two months later it was added that Ayckbourn's other two "ghost" plays would also be performed as a trilogy, now known as Things That Go Bump. Although Things That Go Bump was a name created by the Stephen Joseph Theatre for its 2008 season rather than one created by Alan Ayckbourn, the three plays have since been regarded as a trilogy elsewhere.
Alan Ayckbourn himself did not express any opinions on the existence of ghosts, but he say he once felt the presence of his father's ghost a few years after his death. Whether this affected the plays is unclear.
Note: Ruth Gibson and Ian Hogg can be loosely attributed to Julia and the Chesters' father respectively, as their pictures were used to represent the two ghosts on the programmes and publicity for Haunting Julia and Snake in the Grass. However, they played no part in the actual productions, and in the case of Haunting Julia, the voice of the actress in the original 1994 production, Cathy Sara, was re-used.
and Damsels in Distress
), there was no connection between either the set or the location of the play. The time-frame of the plays vary, with Haunting Julia
taking place in a single interval-free scene over two hours, Life and Beth
running from evening to morning over Christmas Eve, and Snake in the Grass, the longest, running from one afternoon to very late the following day.
Haunting Julia went through the most changes with the setting over its première and revivals, with an interval added and removed again; and written for the proscenium
but staged in in the round
, then re-staged in the proscenium and then the round again. The trilogy in its final form was produced entirely in the round, but all three of the plays have been (individually) performed for the end-stage at various stages in their respective tours.
premiered at the Stephen Joseph Theatre
on 27 May 2008 , followed by Snake in the Grass on 22 July 2008 and Life and Beth
on 22 July 2008. The production team was:
The three plays then toured to the New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme
in September. In 2009, Life and Beth was re-directed for the end-stage
and toured alone to six other theatres.
The original reviews of Haunting Julia
were divided, partly along the lines of those who welcomed Ayckbourn's progression into more dramatic plays and those who preferred his older formula. One thing that may not have helped was that it was a play written for the proscenium
that was staged in the round
, and consequently a crucial door was invisible to some of the audience. In the 1999 revival, where and end-stage production was possible, and in 2008, which was staged in the round again but the door was changed into a trapdoor, the reviews were better.
Snake in the Grasss 2002 reviews were generally positive, with, this time, Ayckbourn's move into more contemporary themes being welcomed by the reviewers.
In the Things That Go Bump trilogy in 2008, the most attention in the reviews went to Life and Beth
. This was also received positively, although there was disappointment from some that the tension from the earlier two plays was not repeated here.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
Alan Ayckbourn
Alan Ayckbourn
Sir Alan Ayckbourn CBE is a prolific English playwright. He has written and produced seventy-three full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where all but four of his plays have received their...
.
Unlike Ayckbourn's previous trilogies, where all three plays were written for the same season, the three plays in this set were written over a period of fourteen years. The first play, Haunting Julia
Haunting Julia
Haunting Julia is a 1994 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. It is about Julia Lukin, a nineteen-year-old brilliant musician who committed suicide twelve years earlier, who haunts the three men closest to her, through both the supernatural and in their memories...
, was written in 1994, and Snake in the Grass was written in 2002 as a companion piece. Finally, in 2008, a third play, Life and Beth
Life and Beth
Life and Beth is a 2008 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. It was written as a third part of a trilogy named Things That Go Bump, uniting the cast of the first two plays: Haunting Julia and Snake in the Grass...
, was written combining the six actors in the other two plays, and all three plays were performed as a trilogy at the Stephen Joseph Theatre
Stephen Joseph Theatre
The Stephen Joseph Theatre is a theatre in the round in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England that was founded by Stephen Joseph and was the first theatre in the round in Britain....
. The plays shared the themes of ghosts, but the stories and characters themselves were unconnected.
Background
Further details in background sections on individual Haunting Julia, Snake in the Grass and Life and Beth pages.The history of the trilogy began in 1994, when the Stephen Joseph Theatre
Stephen Joseph Theatre
The Stephen Joseph Theatre is a theatre in the round in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England that was founded by Stephen Joseph and was the first theatre in the round in Britain....
was still at its old Westwood site. Haunting Julia
Haunting Julia
Haunting Julia is a 1994 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. It is about Julia Lukin, a nineteen-year-old brilliant musician who committed suicide twelve years earlier, who haunts the three men closest to her, through both the supernatural and in their memories...
was written following inspiration from Stephen Mallatratt
Stephen Mallatratt
Stephen Mallatratt was an English playwright and television screenwriter. He is best known for his television work on the ITV series Coronation Street, The Forsyte Saga and Island at War , and for his stage adaptation of the novel The Woman in Black...
's stage adaptation of Susan Hill
Susan Hill
Susan Hill is an English author of fiction and non-fiction works. Her novels include The Woman in Black, The Mist in the Mirror and I'm the King of the Castle for which she received the Somerset Maugham Award in 1971....
's The Woman in Black
The Woman in Black
The Woman in Black is a 1983 thriller fiction novel by Susan Hill about a menacing spectre that haunts a small English town.It was adapted into a stage play by Stephen Mallatratt...
, and premièred at the theatre seven years earlier. His interest came from what he considered Mallatratt's ability to make audiences jump through good acting and tension rather than special effects. However, Haunting Julia ended up being dominated by the three living men and their relationship to Julia - a brilliant musician who took her life aged nineteen - rather than the appearances of any ghosts.
After a première with mixed success in 1994 and a more successful revival in 1999, now at the theatre's current site, Ayckbourn followed this play up in 2002 with Snake in the Grass. This was partly due to a wish to write a female equivalent of Julia, partly due to the continuing success of The Woman in Black, and partly due to the success that Yasmina Reza
Yasmina Reza
Yasmina Reza is a French playwright, actress, novelist and screenwriter. Her parents were both of Jewish origin, her father Iranian, her mother Hungarian.-Career:...
's play 'Art'
'Art' (play)
‘Art’ is a French language play by Yasmina Reza that premiered on 28 October 1994 at Comédie des Champs-Élysées in Paris. The English language adaptation, translated by Christopher Hampton opened in London's West End on 15 October 1996, starring Albert Finney. It played on Broadway in New York...
was enjoying with a small cast. Mirroring the original play, Snake featured three women, and the "ghost" was the father of two of them. However, in keeping with Ayckbourn's tendency to move more contemporary themes, the play was arguably a much darker one, covering themes of sexual abuse
Sexual abuse
Sexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is the forcing of undesired sexual behavior by one person upon another. When that force is immediate, of short duration, or infrequent, it is called sexual assault. The offender is referred to as a sexual abuser or molester...
and domestic violence
Domestic violence
Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...
.
For some time afterwards, Ayckbourn considered writing a third ghost play that would combine the cast of the previous two plays, and eventually decided to do so after Susie Blake
Susie Blake
Susie Blake is a British actress.-Personal life:Blake trained at the Arts Educational School and LAMDA in London. She is the granddaughter of the actress Annette Mills and a great - niece of the actor Sir John Mills...
(Miriam in the original Snake in the Grass) asked about reprising her role. It was announced in December 2007 that the play would be performed as part of next summer's season, and two months later it was added that Ayckbourn's other two "ghost" plays would also be performed as a trilogy, now known as Things That Go Bump. Although Things That Go Bump was a name created by the Stephen Joseph Theatre for its 2008 season rather than one created by Alan Ayckbourn, the three plays have since been regarded as a trilogy elsewhere.
Alan Ayckbourn himself did not express any opinions on the existence of ghosts, but he say he once felt the presence of his father's ghost a few years after his death. Whether this affected the plays is unclear.
Characters
The first two plays each have three characters: all-male in the first, and all-female in the second.. In the 2008 season, the twelve characters were cast as follows:| Actor in 2008 Season | Actor required | Haunting Julia Haunting Julia Haunting Julia is a 1994 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. It is about Julia Lukin, a nineteen-year-old brilliant musician who committed suicide twelve years earlier, who haunts the three men closest to her, through both the supernatural and in their memories... |
Snake in the Grass | Life and Beth Life and Beth Life and Beth is a 2008 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. It was written as a third part of a trilogy named Things That Go Bump, uniting the cast of the first two plays: Haunting Julia and Snake in the Grass... |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ian Hogg Ian Hogg (actor) Ian Hogg is a British actor.- Early life :He is the son of a doctor and was educated at Durham School, Durham University and the Central School of Speech and Drama... |
Male, older | Joe Lukin | (Father) | David |
| Adrian McLoughlin | Male, older | Ken Chase | - | Gordon |
| Richard Stacey | Male, younger | Andy Rollinson | - | Martin |
| Liza Goddard Liza Goddard Liza Goddard is an English television and stage actress best known for her work in the 1970s and 1980s.-Early life:Goddard was born in Smethwick, West Midlands, England... |
Female, older | - | Annabel Chester | Beth |
| Susie Blake Susie Blake Susie Blake is a British actress.-Personal life:Blake trained at the Arts Educational School and LAMDA in London. She is the granddaughter of the actress Annette Mills and a great - niece of the actor Sir John Mills... |
Female, older | - | Miriam Chester | Connie |
| Ruth Gibson | Female, younger | (Julia) | Alice Moody | Ella |
Note: Ruth Gibson and Ian Hogg can be loosely attributed to Julia and the Chesters' father respectively, as their pictures were used to represent the two ghosts on the programmes and publicity for Haunting Julia and Snake in the Grass. However, they played no part in the actual productions, and in the case of Haunting Julia, the voice of the actress in the original 1994 production, Cathy Sara, was re-used.
Setting
All three plays are single-set plays, but unlike earlier trilogies (The Norman ConquestsThe Norman Conquests
The Norman Conquests is a trilogy of plays written in 1973 by Alan Ayckbourn. The small scale of the drama is typical of Ayckbourn. There are only six characters, namely Norman, his wife Ruth, her brother Reg and his wife Sarah, Ruth's sister Annie, and Tom, Annie's next-door-neighbour...
and Damsels in Distress
Damsels in Distress (plays)
Damsels in Distress is a trilogy of plays written in 2001 by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. The three plays, GamePlan, FlatSpin and RolePlay, were originally performed as a set by the Stephen Joseph Theatre Company . The plays were written to be performed by the same seven actors using the same...
), there was no connection between either the set or the location of the play. The time-frame of the plays vary, with Haunting Julia
Haunting Julia
Haunting Julia is a 1994 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. It is about Julia Lukin, a nineteen-year-old brilliant musician who committed suicide twelve years earlier, who haunts the three men closest to her, through both the supernatural and in their memories...
taking place in a single interval-free scene over two hours, Life and Beth
Life and Beth
Life and Beth is a 2008 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. It was written as a third part of a trilogy named Things That Go Bump, uniting the cast of the first two plays: Haunting Julia and Snake in the Grass...
running from evening to morning over Christmas Eve, and Snake in the Grass, the longest, running from one afternoon to very late the following day.
Haunting Julia went through the most changes with the setting over its première and revivals, with an interval added and removed again; and written for the proscenium
Proscenium
A proscenium theatre is a theatre space whose primary feature is a large frame or arch , which is located at or near the front of the stage...
but staged in in the round
Theatre in the round
Theatre-in-the-round or arena theatre is any theatre space in which the audience surrounds the stage area...
, then re-staged in the proscenium and then the round again. The trilogy in its final form was produced entirely in the round, but all three of the plays have been (individually) performed for the end-stage at various stages in their respective tours.
Haunting Julia
The first play, originally written in 1994, Haunting Julia, is set in the "Julia Lukin Music Centre" in an exhibit reproducing the room of Julia, a gifted musician who unexpectedly took her life aged nineteen. Twelve years after the event, Julia's father, Joe, brings along Julia's old boyfriend (or, more accurately, unrequited admirer). With Joe never accepting Julia's death as suicide and determined to believe she lives on as a ghost, and Andy (now married with children) wanting to forget it and move on, Joe brings along Ken Chase, a man who claims to be a psychic, in a bid to contact her. Ken is later discovered to be the former janitor in Julia's house, and between the three of them, the truth gradually emerges as to why Julia really took her life. And as they talk about it, more and more unexplained events occur which seem to suggest Julia is still around.Snake in the Grass
Snake in the Grass, written in 2002 as a companion piece to Haunting Julia, reversed the sexes, changing the three male characters for three female characters and the ghost of a young woman for that of an old (and much less pleasant) man. It is also portrays "ghosts" far more in the metaphorical context of past events rather than supernatural beings. In the play, Annabel Chester returns to her family home she fled when twelve to receive the inheritance from her beautiful father. She is blackmailed by her father's old nurse, Alice Moody, who claims to have evidence than Annabel's housebound sister, Miriam, overdose his medicine. Miriam's method of dealing with this, however, is to drug Alice and push her down the garden well. After the sisters destroy the evidence, the terrible truths about their pasts emerge, as does the true extent of a sinister plot.Life and Beth
The final play that combined the two casts, Life and Beth, was written in 2008. Much more like a comedy than the other two plays, it is also the only play of the three where the ghost is played by a character on stage (although it is never quite clear whether this was a real ghost or just a figment of Beth's imagination). It is set over the first Christmas Eve that Beth spends after her husband's death, where her self-pitying alcohol sister-in-law, Connie, her son Martin, and lovesick vicar David all doing their utmost to help her through it. In actual fact, however, Beth doesn't miss her husband, Gordon, that much, as he was a pedantic and tedious man who micromanaged her life, whilst Martin has inherited all of the wrong attributes of Gordon, as evidenced by his silent morose girlfriend Ella. It is only when a prayer of David's inadvertently brings the ghost of Gordon back to Earth that things get complicated.Productions
In the Things That Go Bump season, Haunting JuliaHaunting Julia
Haunting Julia is a 1994 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. It is about Julia Lukin, a nineteen-year-old brilliant musician who committed suicide twelve years earlier, who haunts the three men closest to her, through both the supernatural and in their memories...
premiered at the Stephen Joseph Theatre
Stephen Joseph Theatre
The Stephen Joseph Theatre is a theatre in the round in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England that was founded by Stephen Joseph and was the first theatre in the round in Britain....
on 27 May 2008 , followed by Snake in the Grass on 22 July 2008 and Life and Beth
Life and Beth
Life and Beth is a 2008 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. It was written as a third part of a trilogy named Things That Go Bump, uniting the cast of the first two plays: Haunting Julia and Snake in the Grass...
on 22 July 2008. The production team was:
- Director (Haunting Julia) - Richard Derrington
- Director (Snake in the Grass and Life and Beth) - Alan AyckbournAlan AyckbournSir Alan Ayckbourn CBE is a prolific English playwright. He has written and produced seventy-three full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where all but four of his plays have received their...
- Design - Pip Leckenby
- Lighting - Kath Geraghty
- Music - John Pattinson
The three plays then toured to the New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme
Newcastle-under-Lyme
Newcastle-under-Lyme is a market town in Staffordshire, England, and is the principal town of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme. It is part of The Potteries Urban Area and North Staffordshire. In the 2001 census the town had a population of 73,944...
in September. In 2009, Life and Beth was re-directed for the end-stage
Proscenium
A proscenium theatre is a theatre space whose primary feature is a large frame or arch , which is located at or near the front of the stage...
and toured alone to six other theatres.
Critical Reviews
Further details in review sections on individual Haunting Julia, Snake in the Grass and Life and Beth pages.The original reviews of Haunting Julia
Haunting Julia
Haunting Julia is a 1994 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. It is about Julia Lukin, a nineteen-year-old brilliant musician who committed suicide twelve years earlier, who haunts the three men closest to her, through both the supernatural and in their memories...
were divided, partly along the lines of those who welcomed Ayckbourn's progression into more dramatic plays and those who preferred his older formula. One thing that may not have helped was that it was a play written for the proscenium
Proscenium
A proscenium theatre is a theatre space whose primary feature is a large frame or arch , which is located at or near the front of the stage...
that was staged in the round
Theatre in the round
Theatre-in-the-round or arena theatre is any theatre space in which the audience surrounds the stage area...
, and consequently a crucial door was invisible to some of the audience. In the 1999 revival, where and end-stage production was possible, and in 2008, which was staged in the round again but the door was changed into a trapdoor, the reviews were better.
Snake in the Grasss 2002 reviews were generally positive, with, this time, Ayckbourn's move into more contemporary themes being welcomed by the reviewers.
In the Things That Go Bump trilogy in 2008, the most attention in the reviews went to Life and Beth
Life and Beth
Life and Beth is a 2008 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. It was written as a third part of a trilogy named Things That Go Bump, uniting the cast of the first two plays: Haunting Julia and Snake in the Grass...
. This was also received positively, although there was disappointment from some that the tension from the earlier two plays was not repeated here.
External links
- Haunting Julia, Snake in the Grass and Life and Beth on official Ayckbourn website.