By Carol Davison | Photography by Carol Davison
Halloween week saw another successful run of Little Cat Theatre Company’s ‘Scary Tales,’ with six sold out performances of the show at the Tynemouth Lodge, an 18th century building soaked in history. With its own stories of secret tunnels and unexplained activity, the Lodge is the perfect setting for some spooky story telling.
I caught up with Little Cat’s Pete Ross before the dress rehearsal. Pete, one half of popular local music duo ‘Pete and Lou,’ founded the independent theatre company in 2008 and they performed Scary Tales at Tynemouth Priory for eight years before moving to this new venue four years ago. He felt the show had reached its sell by date at the Priory, having already lured their nervous audience to its darkest corners. The Lodge felt like an ideal new location with its dark lane linked to the old Correction House next door and its stone outbuildings. As I stood there chatting to Pete on a pitch-black night at the end of October with bats swooping through the long-limbed trees in Northumberland Park, I could see what had drawn him.
Pete writes a fresh set of scary tales each year and 2024 saw three imaginative outdoor sets created at the rear of the Tynemouth Lodge, transforming it into ‘Ye Olde Swan Inn and Forge’. This year the tales were based around a small group of friends who gathered at the inn, and in order to garner another pint of ale from the imperious landlady, they would tell stories of haunted places in which they had previously stayed.
I joined the audience on Halloween night. The immersive performance started in the Lodge itself when a couple of boisterous Dickensian characters bounded into the bar and enticed us away from the warmth of the fire with a promise of a night we would not forget. Messrs. Hogman junior and senior were true to their word.
Following jump scares in the dark lane, we were led to the outdoor tent which had been dressed as a bawdy Victorian ale house with amazing attention to detail and then on to an outbuilding, transformed into an eerie old bedroom, complete with rickety cast iron bed and candles flickering on a fireplace. Atmospheric lighting and special effects along with quality acting by the cast of eight resulted in some superb story telling. The ghost baby rising from the bed gave me shivers and I got a lump in my throat when her ghost mother appeared through a mist to reclaim her lost child. Countering that was the strong comedic element of the other performances, which, along with a grand fist-thumping sing-along, had me smiling as well as screaming!
The talented team that is Little Cat had clearly put their heart and soul into this wholly original production and seemed to be enjoying themselves as much as the audience. When they entered the bar after their final performance, the place erupted with well deserved applause. A fitting finale to an outstanding event. I look forward to more ghostly goings on in 2025!
PHOTOGRAPHS SHOWING CAST MEMBERS: Edward Collins, Christopher Strain, Louise Ross, Vette Normanly, Jill Raymond, Damian King, Matt Spence, Pete Ross.
