A ghostly night at The Priory When Darkness Falls
When Darkness Falls, a ghost story by James Milton and Paul Morrissey, directed by Connon Cunningham, at The Priory Theatre, Kenilworth from 22 - 31 October 2026.
Review by Ann Evans.
Taking us right up to Halloween, the Priory brings us an evening of ghost stories. Only these aren’t ‘round the campfire’ type ghostly tales. These are horror stories of awful deaths, based supposedly on true events and folklore of the island of Guernsey, which is where this play is set.
The action takes place in a shabby, cluttered office at the top of a building in Elizabeth College, Guernsey. There’s a corridor at the back of the stage and frosted glass windows, allowing just shadows and falling rain to add to the gloomy atmosphere. Well done to the scenery makers for creating such a realistic setting. Often most plays have the basics of furniture and props, and the audience then uses its imagination to picture the rest. This is totally realistic, it looks like the main character, history teacher, John Blondel has spent half his life in this room, working, researching – and now creating the first episode of a series of podcasts.
Right from the start there’s an atmosphere of dread – the fact that the lights flicker and cut out for no apparent reason, and sometimes the audience is left in total darkness in that room for a few moments. The unexpected boom of thunder reminds you that a storm is coming.
John Blondel is played by Ben Smith a familiar face on The Priory stage. Here he plays the part of a total sceptic when it comes to ghosts and the paranormal. However, his guest on his first podcast is a young paranormal expert.
Meanwhile, as John waits for his guest to arrive he has been listening to some old, recorded interviews of a boy being interviewed by a Parapsychologist about his dreams and memories of events that happened long before the boy was born.
John’s guest, simply called The Speaker, is played by Guy Devine – who incidentally makes his debut acting role in this production. From the moment these two men meet each other, there’s an uncomfortable atmosphere. John’s refusal to even consider the possibility of there being a paranormal world clearly annoys The Speaker, and he’s keen to get on with telling his strange and haunting tales.
The recorded voices of the Parapsychologist and the boy were those of Don MacAteer and Will Davis respectively.
Excellent performances by both actors, and also perfect timing by the backstage crew with sound, lighting and special effects that become more intense as the stories go on. Also, as the story progresses, our two characters take on the roles of the individuals in the ghost stories, acting out some awful moments from the past.
In between times John Blondel and The Speaker have heated debates about the paranormal, ghosts and history until the truth and the past begin to surface and the dramatic conclusion is revealed.
An excellent evening’s entertainment, with faultless performances by both actors; really good work by the behind-the-scenes crew working the lights, sound and special effects which were right on cue. Interesting to read in the programme that the Director Connor Cunningham was also the set designer. The building of the set was then put in the capable hands of Mick Tyler and set builders – Dad’s Army & The Priory Team. It was stage managed by Mike Brooks and Sophie Truelove; lighting, sound and technical operations were down to Karl Stafford, Will Arbuckle and Will Krikler.
Excellent Priory team effort – and the perfect choice for a play at this spooky time of the year.
For tickets: https://priorytheatre.co.uk/
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