Following its export to Toronto and Moscow, Ghost Stories is now making its return to London’s West End from 13^th February 2014, at the Arts Theatre, where it promises to make you jump out of your seat all over again.

 

We caught up with co-creator, Andy Nyman on the return of Ghost Stories to London’s theatre heartland.

 

 

WeHeartHorror: How are things going with the preparation for Ghost Stories’ return?

 

Andy Nyman: I’m very, very excited. We’re fully cast, and it’s a brilliant new cast for the show. We also have a few little bits of new design, which are being worked on. So, it’s very exciting.

 

WHH: We understand from previously speaking to Jeremy (Dyson) that there were certain tweaks that you both felt you couldn’t do beforehand, but are now able to.

 

AN: Yes. We have made some tweaks to the script.

 

WHH: But we’re assuming that we can’t talk about them?

 

AN: Well, we can say that there are a few new little moments, but other than that… I’m not going to tell you anything! (Laughs). Hopefully, they are large enough to count.

 

WHH: Have there been any new challenges in getting it all together and bringing the show back to London?

 

AN: No challenges in that respect. I mean, what is fantastic is that we’re working on it again. It’s an incredibly rich script and in terms of working on it, it doesn’t fell like, “Ok, let’s just blow the cobwebs off it and just put it back on again.”

 

It very much feels like it’s exciting meeting those characters again, and it’s exciting looking for any new little bits for all of them. So, no there haven’t been any new challenges or difficulties so far.

 

WHH: We’re obviously avoiding any spoilers – It must be quite difficult to control the flow of information about Ghost Stories once the audience leaves the theatre, yet you somehow manage it.

 

AN: (Laughs) That is quite something, isn’t it? If you think that well over 300,000 people have now seen the show, and if you do a Google search on it - apart from the odd intentional review, which has some of the plot in it - you can’t really find anything out about it.

 

I would like to think that a lot of that is about giving people an experience that they’ve really enjoyed, and they enjoy the preserving and enjoy the sense of wanting to share that… Just go to see it with other people. Again, we just ask them, “Please don’t spoil things” and people are generally alright with that. As long as you give them a secret worth keeping.

 

WHH: How are things going, aside from the Ghost Stories play?

 

AN: Well, I’ve got a book. “The Golden Rules of Acting”. It’s brilliant how well-received and popular it is, that it just keeps on selling and doing nicely. The main thing is the joy of Ghost Stories – Myself and Jeremy just enjoy working together and enjoy scaring people. We are about to do a movie of Ghost Stories next year.

 

WHH: Yes, Jeremy mentioned that you were working on a Ghost Stories film script. How is that going?

 

AN: We’ve written the screenplay for it, and I think we’re on the verge of that all happening now, which is just incredible. The biggest joy of all is being with Jeremy and hearing people scream their f**king lungs out! (Laughs) That is just a brilliant feeling.

 

Reading tweets and emails I still get from people who have reacted in scales from “Oh, we just absolutely loved it” to, “I’ve had to sleep with the lights on since”, is amazing.

 

You forget - especially with people like you and me - who love horror, and soak it up and chase the dragon, wanting to have a moment where you’re scared and that’s sort of it, really. It ends at that moment which we love and cherish, but that’s it. We forget there are many, many, many people who – certainly, with Ghost Stories – whose partners would have wanted to see it and go, “Oh, ok. It won’t be that scary. It’s on stage”, and I like to think we hit them really hard. They go away and some of those people will have proper nightmares. Well, that is brilliant! (Laughs). That is a job well done!