Hallowe'en Hauntings

Hallowe’en has become much more ‘Americanised’ in the UK since I was a nipper, but as most theatres have resident ghosts, it’s probably in our interests to observe the festival – just to be on the safe side. We are supposed to have three – a man, a woman and a little girl – although they have never been seen at the same time and aren’t believed to be a family. The man has been seen in the rehearsal room known as the dungeon while the woman and little girl have only ever been seen in the auditorium as far as I am aware, with the woman usually seen on the sound balcony. She has, however, been seen at least once on stage during a performance, whispering in the ear of a musician in a band.

People do say that major building work in old premises like ours can disturb the spirits and increase the likelihood of ghostly activity. While this didn’t seem to happen here, there have been several slightly spooky goings-on over the last 12 months in the part of the theatre known as No 47, which consists of a ground floor committee room, an office and costume store on the first floor and a rehearsal room on the second floor. There is also access into the cellar.

Last summer, an electrical tester was working in the top rehearsal room and was convinced he was being watched. Every time he looked round, he saw nothing. He mentioned this to me afterwards while he was testing the wiring in the swimming pool area and said it was probably his mind playing tricks from hearing someone moving around the room below…except, of course, there was no one else in that part of the building at the time. Mary never left the box office and I was in the back alleyway spraying the weeds!

Last year, I was in the office in No 47 and thought I heard my name being called by a woman’s voice. I guessed it was merely noise from outside or next door, until I heard it a second and third time. I went down the stairs, assuming it was Mary. Perhaps the intercom between the box office and admin office wasn’t working, so she’d had to come across and find me? No, the intercom was working and Mary had again never left the box office and had actually been on the phone for some time. Added to that, only a fortnight ago, I heard the sound of chairs being moved around in the committee room beneath the office several times over the course of a morning – on every visit downstairs, there was no sign of anything having been moved and no one else around.

Were these all noises from outside merely sounding as if they were coming from within the theatre, or genuinely ghostly goings-on? Happy Hallowe’en!