Washington October 26, Northern Stage October 31 to November 1 2019
Clairvoyant caper puts the laughter into afterlife
A unique North East theatrical production looks set to do for celebrity psychics what Alan Partridge did for radio presenters.
There’s Someone Coming Throughis an affectionate look at what happens to famous clairvoyants when the entity they most need to reach is the ghost of their own career.
Written by Sunderland playwright Lee Stewart, the production takes the form of an actual, semi-serious clairvoyancy evening. The audience is part of the show.
Darlington based actor Michael Luke (Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Little Boy Blue) assumes the persona of fictional psychic legend Neville Vaughan – a man still living off the glory of his nineties heyday. However, the size and quality of the venues Neville has been performing in has slowly dwindled since then and he’s now at the point of asking himself where it all went wrong and how can he ever get it back? Neville has his long suffering assistant, David, by his side, but it’s going to take a lot more than David’s unwavering support to help Neville to get past his own negative energy and win over what is guaranteed to be a particularly tough crowd.
The play is set pre, during and post the Neville Vaughan stage extravaganza and is effectively a show within a show. The audience gets to see the on and off stage character of Neville and empathise with his fall from popularity and appreciate the humour in the play.
While researching the show’s creation, which premiered successfully at the Sunderland Royalty last year, Michael visited real spiritualist venues across the North East.
It gave him a respect for spiritualism, which he hopes is reflected in the show.
Said Michael: “The show is fun and it’s funny, but it’s by no means a farce. There are many people who find deep comfort and solace in their visits to spiritualists. So, although very much a comedy, it deals with the subject of loss in a sensitive way that we hope will appeal to sceptics and non-sceptics alike.”
There’s Someone Coming Throughwill play at Northern Stage this Hallowe’en (October 31) and All Saints Day (November 1), with a special warm up show at Washington Arts Centre on October 26th.
Tickets £10 from Northern Stage