A haunting experience

AMERICAN novelist Shirley Jackson decided to write a ghost story, apparently after reading about a group of 19th century psychic researchers who studied a supposedly haunted house. Published in 1959, Jackson’s hugely popular gothic horror story has been adapted for the stage by Olivier and BAFTA award-winner Stef Smith, and is currently having its world premiere production at Salisbury Playhouse until 3rd October.

The play, directed by Sky Arts Award winner Martin Constantine, is tense, unsettling and darkly playful – shadows whisper, walls remember and nothing is as it seems. Is Hill House haunted – or are we?

The novelist’s son, Laurence J Hyman, says he is thrilled that the story is now being staged, “and that Stef Smith’s adaptation will capture the novel’s remarkable and unsettling spirit for audiences in a whole new way.”

Directed by Martin Constantine, this is a Wiltshire Creative production in association with Theatr Clwyd.