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Ghost Light

 
Elanor Parker Review by Elanor Parker 4 Published: 5 May 2026 The Lantern @ ACT Show Dates: 4 May 2026-10 May 2026

Outside, it may be the last day of a mostly sunny Bank Holiday weekend, with Brighton’s many merry revellers enjoying the dry weather and longer evenings. However, Ghost Light at the Lantern Theatre purposefully draws you back deep into the gloom.

Creepy enough to make even the most skeptical a little wary

We’re thrown into 1865, an era long before electric lights and camera phones empowered naysayers to ask for evidence of anything you claim they should be afraid of lurking in the dark.

A busy audience, drawn in by the promise of something spooky, is silenced by the dark surrounding us as we watch the horror unfold. This original play is written by Ian Tucker-Bell, who also appears on stage as the lovesick Jonathan Henning. It leans into the traditions of gothic ghost stories: Victorian repression, letter writing, and a haunted house all come into play. Some may find the style a little melodramatic, but fans of the genre will understand the effectiveness of these formalities. Those who enjoy the television series A Ghost Story at Christmas, remarkably revived in recent years by Mark Gatiss, adapting the works of masters of the craft such as M. R. James will know exactly what they’re in for.

The key to this show’s success is its staging: it is played almost entirely in the dark, only lit by flickering lanterns, which are carried by the actors, with some also placed strategically above the stage. The actors’ faces appear in and out of the shadows, reminiscent of oil paintings such as An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump by Joseph Wright of Derby. Like the subjects of that masterpiece, the lighting heightens their expressions of terror and dismay with dramatic shadows.

It is perhaps a shame that this story, at least partially inspired by the tradition of stage ghost lights, isn’t actually set in a theatre. The narrative itself could easily be told as a radio play, especially as the characters already paint out the scenes with their words. However, sitting in the dark side by side with your fellow audience members – your eyes straining just a little to make out the detail of the faces on stage as you watch in a constant sense of heightened awareness – builds the crucial atmosphere that will leave you with a shiver running down your spine.

The actors are engaging enough to make the necessarily dialogue and exposition heavy script compelling: you want to catch every word of the seemingly knowledgeable elderly stage hand Edward Price (Paul Ackroyd) or every movement of the terrifying Victor Sands (Pierse Stevens). However, occasionally the accompanying score overcrowded the performances on stage: Mia Sand’s (Bizz Portlock) emotional outburst was powerful enough alone without needing emotionally leading strings throughout. Although very professionally crafted, the audio could use a little polishing to intensify its ghoulish nature: it at times felt a little modern for the period setting. This probably only stood out because everything else felt so in line with expectations, from the costuming to the speech.

There aren’t really any jump scares. This production ditches cheap thrills to explore horrors such as gaslighting and abuse that are unfortunately still present in today’s society. However, Ghost Light is the old-fashioned kind of storytelling you wish there was more of. Its simple ingredients combine to be creepy enough to make even the most skeptical a little wary of turning off their bedside lamp at night.

Amir Nisi

Elanor Parker

Elanor is a Brighton based marketer, freelance writer, and English graduate. Pursuing her interest in live performance, Elanor has trained with Nottingham's New Perspectives theatre company and worked at Edinburgh Fringe, where one year she managed to see over 65 shows during the festival.

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“I think if you’re going to write a ghost story... you must experience ghosts for yourself.” In 1865 Henry Webster joins the notorious London Ghost Club, hoping to meet and be inspired by Charles Dickens. There he meets Edward Price who draws Henry into investigating a haunting at his own lodging house, belonging to the widowed Mia Sands. At night, the ghosts of two young children wander the house in search of light and safety - while fearing what waits for them in the darkness. But why would a ghost be afraid of the dark?
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