We arrived at the venue for tonight’s performance with some time to spare so we sat in a very non-descript cafe that didn’t seem to have any connection to the venue, yet was inside it. We killed some time there before heading upstairs to the house. Entering at first glance it’s quite a large venue with a fair sized stage too. On the stage was a lamp (prop), four stools, a camera on a tripod and that was it. On the back of the stage was a screen that was being projected on to. As we sat down on our end of row seats on the right we realised that half of the screen was blocked by the sides of the stage. Great. I feel this could have been solved / taken into consideration by moving the stools to the front of the stage and using either screens to either side of the stage or bringing the rear screen forward.
The show started with a projected film on the screen. The half of it I could see seemed to be about Theatres and their history with hauntings. It was not specific to the venue we were in tonight. After a few minutes following an announcement (that it turned out was from Karl), Yevette enters the stage to a warm round of applause. She talks for a few minutes about the show, how it works and what to expect, then introduces the rest of the team in attendance which tonight was Karl Beattie, Stuart Torevell and the ‘open-minded’ sceptic Gregg Smith. The team sit on the stools in front of the screen and take a moment to introduce themselves.
They then all stand up to watch the first of 10 clips on the screen behind. Now they vacate their seats every time for this… seems like they could have avoided this if they had had a sofa to sit on near the front of the stage instead but who am I to question the creative masterminds at play here. After each clip the team come together and talk about the clip just seen, their favorite memories and some behind the scenes secrets from each of the investigations. Towards the end of the first half of the show, the team sent Karl and Gregg into the audience to field questions the audience had. There were perhaps 3-4 questions taken in total. Two were throwaway questions and one was about ‘transference’, which strangely enough had Yvette giving what sounded like a pre-prepared answer and she just so happened to have a clip to show to illustrate what she meant. Following that was a long.. story (not question) from another audience member who had sadly more than 30 years ago lost a child. She was.. desperate to hear from her child from the other side and a long answer was given by Yvette to this woman. Then it was time for the interval.
We stayed in our seats because frankly getting out of the venue seemed problematic.. People were still trying to get to the bar when the show started up for the second half again. A table had now appeared on the stage which is where the gang and some selected audience members were invited up to do a live séance. These audience members were selected by sending Karl and Gregg back into the audience. You’ll never guess who one of the selected people was… The woman who lost the child of course, picked completely at random. The other three were supposed ‘random’ audience members with open minds. One was an older guy who has experience of ghost hunting, one was a younger man who seems to have been to and stayed in at least one of the locations the Most Haunted team has been to in the past, one was a seemingly random woman who went to a spiritualist church. They sat down at the table together with Karl and Yvette.
At the same time, four more people were selected randomly from the audience, an young Irish guy, an older man and a woman and her daughter sitting right up front in row one. So very random. These people were selected to head off backstage with Stuart and Gregg. They were to be in a room in the darkness backstage were they would take place in a table-tipping activity and generally call for spirits to come and visit them. This section was filmed as if it was a live ghost hunt in real-time via night-vision cameras. Yvette would pivot to this ‘live feed’ at various points throughout the so-called séance.
At one point we join the investigation team when the older guy is asking if somebody who was seeing people was seeing them like the ‘woman in the photo on the wall’ – in a supposed to be pitch-black-dark room… When another of the participants in the room pipes up that it’s a photo of Ken Dodd… the audience explodes into laughter, we quickly cut away. The séance is producing no believable results, and Yvette then encourages the woman with the lost child to step back, as she believes her want to be contacted is an energy that is too great for the table, or some other.. stuff that was said. She steps back. The table produces a word… “Arse” exclaims Karl… Laughter ensues. Later on another word comes through ‘Duck’… So we got “Arse Duck” or “Duck Arse” from the séance.. from a spirit who just wanted to mess around apparently.
The show is brought to a close at that point and everyone who is on the stage is given one last opportunity to say something, from those involved with the séance to those who went away with Stuart and Gregg to do the live investigation. They all loved it. I am not sure the entire audience quite felt the same. Was it ghost hunting? No. Was it scary? No. Was it entertainment.. Perhaps yes, that’s what we’ll call it. It was interesting to see Yvette, Karl, Stuart and Gregg up on the stage, live and in-person rather than simply on a tv screen, but perhaps they could have been available in the lobby afterwards or something. Worth the £33 a ticket? – Hard no from me. Would I go again? – Hard no, what would be the point? What would be different? Different clips…? Perhaps.. But possibly not. They do a ‘Most Haunted Live Experience’ which they take members of the public who pay for the opportunity on live ghost hunting investigations.. some of which feature the cast / crew of the tv show, and some don’t.. so what happens on those.. I’ve no idea. Should I give it a go?
