Digital play The Haunting of Alice Bowles to premiere in December starring Janie Dee
© Dan Wooller for WhatsOnStage
A spooky digital show is being created by Original Theatre, the team behind Birdsong Online and Apollo 13.
Penned by Philip Franks and based on M R James' ghost story The Experiment, the piece oscillates between two time periods – 1918 and 2020 – to re-tell the tale of Alice Bowles, a recent widow who has to solve a riddle left by her late husband. Over a century later, two YouTubers pick up her trail.
The piece is set to star Janie Dee (Follies), Max Bowden (EastEnders) and Stephen Boxer (Humans) with Jack Archer (Monogamy). Alexandra Guelff (The Habit of Art), Robert Mountford (The Habit of Art), Poppy Roe (Apollo 13: The Dark Side of the Moon) and Tim Treloar (Birdsong Online).
Released online on 17 December and available until 28 February, tickets are now available via the Original Theatre website. They cost £10 if booked by 31 October.
Franks said: "I've loved M R James ever since I was terrified by Whistle and I'll Come To You on the BBC in 1968. A series of brilliantly subtle and scary adaptations of his ghost stories were a highlight of Christmas viewing for many years. Now it's my turn. I've taken a very short story of his – as far as I know never dramatised before – and given it a modern twist for our troubled times. I hope audiences find it pleasurably terrifying."
