Theatre
New Writing
Bewitching
photographs by William Stewart
Commissioned by the Vayu Naidu Company as part of the ‘Licensed to Tell’ season at the Canterbury Festival, October 2003.
Bewitching is inspired by the Victorian ghost stories of M. R. James and draws upon some of his best-known tales including Casting The Runes and Count Magnus. It was performed in the atmospheric splendour of the Medieval Hall above Simple Simon’s tavern in Canterbury.
Adapted and performed by William Arthur, Alex Bartram and Adam Meggido.
Quote
‘Dunning returned to his home at about 11.30 and went straight to bed, but found he could not sleep. As the grandfather clock chimed one in the hall, he heard the unmistakable sound of his study door opening. It was shame, rather than courage that induced him to slip out into the passage and lean over the banister to listen. No light was visible; no further sound came. He decided to lock himself into his room. Alone in the dark he reached for a book of matches he kept beneath his pillow. What he touched was, according to his account, a mouth, with teeth, and with hair about it, and, so he told me, not the mouth of a human being.’
from 'Casting The Runes'