Review: Haunt, Pray, Love at Spielman Theatre
The witty and warm Haunt, Pray, Love completed a cheering run in South Bristol this Halloween
Haunt, Pray, Love – a piece of theatre by Bristol based company Eat The Wolf – has returned to the stage this year after a highly successful run at the Alma Tavern Theatre in 2023.
The play has undergone further development, with improved costume design and additional scenes.
It’s a smart story about being human, even after you’ve died. Heaven is full, which appears to mean the deceased end up in random places when passing over.
Gary is haunting an office. It should feel like an eternal hell of boredom, but Gary doesn’t experience it that way. He found life difficult, noisy and overwhelming. His backstory delves into the issues which makes his isolation his peace.
His eternal rest is shattered by the arrival of Claire. She’s loud, emotional and the polar opposite of Gary.
Claire was killed by a recycling lorry, ironic in the fact that Claire spent her life doing all the right things. Hysterical for Gary because they move along streets at around 5mph.
The pair eventually become friends, discovering they can work together to make things move. Between them, they terrify the wits out of poor office worker Mark. While Gary is happy in his world, Claire eventually suffers a supernatural existential crisis. She wants to get back to the living. She has people counting on her to be there.
Meanwhile, office worker Mark, driven to obsession with the supernatural activity plaguing his daily routines, attempts to exorcise the office space demons through ritual. It’s a ritual that sends one of them spiraling back to the world of the living.
This is where Umbra Penumbra’s beautifully creepy animations come in with a very Lotte Reiniger vibe.
A third character that appears through voicemails left for Claire, cleverly connects the land of the living with that of the dead.
Throughout the show, an onstage band of ghosts perform songs, moving the action along, like a Greek chorus. It’s a great device with funny results.
There were times some of the pacing could have done with a little tightening up, mostly so around the use of puppetry early on. And some of the lines were lost when the sound was a bit loud during one important scene where Gary is completely overwhelmed.
However, Haunt, Pray, Love, is a fun piece of theatre that’s easy to connect to. It gently entertains us, is really funny and hits the heartstrings hard right at the end.
To keep up-to-date with Eat The Wolf: https://www.instagram.com/eatthewolftheatre/
Cast and Creatives
Gary- James Nicholas Joseph Locke
Claire – Emily France
Mark – Joe Topping
Ghost Singer – Chloe May Thurlow
Ghost Guitarist – James Rayner-Adams
Ghost Pianist – Jack Orozco-Morrison
Director – James Nicholas Joseph Locke
Dramaturg – Joe Topping
Composer and producer – Chloe May Thurlow
Composer – Jack Orozco-Morrison
Technician – Amber Grieve
Animation – Umbra Penumbra
Featured Image: Alma Tavern Theatre production 2023
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