Ghost Stories coming to Ludlow this October…

The show will tour 6th October – 8th November 2025, including dates at Ludlow Assembly Rooms (October 28th), Bristol Old Vic, MAC Birmingham, BAC London, and the East of England. Tickets available for 28th October at Ludlow Assembly Rooms: https://ludlowassemblyrooms.co.uk/show/even-more-ghost-stories-by-candlelight/ 

Award-winning writers Florence Espeut-Nickless and Simon Longman from the West of England join Rosa Torr and Anne Odeke from the East for four thrilling ghost stories, directed by Pentabus Artistic Director, the BAFTA-winning Elle While. 

Dramaturged by outgoing HighTide Artistic Director Clare Slater, who will shortly become head of Play Development at the National Theatre, it follows it follows two successful Ghost Stories tours, each entirely standalone, to thrill and terrify this Halloween season.

Clare Slater said today, “My last season at HighTide is a true celebration of what makes the company, our writers and our region so vital. New writing is the lifeblood of theatre and I’m proud of the part HighTide plays in championing it.  Our new mission of developing playwriting talent in the East is working – evidenced by the many, many brilliant writers we’ve commissioned over the last three years including this season’s Rosa Torr, – a Norwich-based writer who came up through our Writers’ Group and whose ghost story will shortly be touring across the UK.” 

EVEN MORE…GHOST STORIES BY CANDLELIGHT
Ghosts don’t always stay in the past.

The sell-out success returns with four brand new spooky stories from award-winning writers. In an ambitious co-production between HighTide and Pentabus, this year’s Ghost Stories by Candlelight will draw you into the secretive corners of the East and West of England. Join us by the candles. Just don’t let the light go out.

Florence Espeut-Nickless is a writer and actor from Chippenham in Wiltshire. Her playwriting credits include Destiny (Tobacco Factory Theatres and UK tour), and is currently being adapted for TV.  She was awarded one of the 2024 Peggy Ramsay/Film4 playwriting Bursary awards, was the CRF Writer in Residence at Pentabus Theatre, an Open Session Writer at Bristol Old Vic and an associate artist at Strike a Light, as part of the Let Artists Be Artists scheme.

Simon Longman is a playwright originally from the West Midlands. His work has been produced, performed and translated around the world. His plays include: Falling Falling Falling Falling (RWCMD/Young Vic); (Circle Dreams Around) The Terrible, Terrible Past (National Theatre, Connections); Patient Light (Eastern Angles); Island Town (Paines Plough); Gundog (Royal Court); Rails (TBTL); White Sky (RWCMD/Royal Court); Sparks (Old Red Lion) and Milked (Pentabus Theatre Company).

He was awarded the 49th George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright and was also a recipient of the Channel 4 Playwright’s Scheme. He is an Associate Artist at Kestrel Theatre Company, which works within prisons around the UK, teaching and exploring playwriting. His plays are published by Bloomsbury. 

Anne Odeke is an actor and emerging playwright. Her playwriting credits include Princess Essex (Shakespeare’s Globe, in which she also starred – nominated for Best New Play and Best Performer in a Play at the WhatsOnStage Awards 2025), with her other plays having been performed at Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, Storyhouse Chester, and the Bush Theatre, with commissions from HighTide and BBC Radio 4. She is also part of the Orange Tree Theatre’s Writers Collective.

Rosa Torr is a Norwich-based interdisciplinary writer and producer. Her writing credits include Gun to your Head (VAULT Festival and UK tour), RATTUS RATTUS: the epic tale of man vs rat (Norfolk and Norwich Festival, National Centre for Writing), The Creation Station (First Light Festival), Sea Her (Directors Cut Theatre), Bump (TARA Arts, Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Smock Alley Theatre). Rosa was also dramaturg/ producer on Gun to your Head.

She is associate producer of Collusion, and cofounder of Dakota Collective, Torr also has an MA Dramaturgy and Writing for Performance from Goldsmiths.

Elle While is a BAFTA winning director, the Artistic Director of Pentabus Theatre and an Associate Artist of Shakespeare's Globe. Directing includes Driftwood, Make Good, One Of Them Ones & Idyll (Pentabus); Pinocchio (The Watermill); As You Like It – BAFTA winner and International Kidscreen Nomination & Twelfth Night (cbeebies); Private Peaceful (Nottingham Playhouse & UK Tour); The Silence and The Noise – Off West End Award winner & Destiny (Pentabus/ Rural Media); Richard III, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merry Wives of Windsor, As You Like It & Hamlet (Shakespeare’s Globe); Blue Stockings (Storyhouse); Glory Dazed – Winner of Holden St. Theatre Award and Critics Choice Award (Soho Theatre, Adelaide Festival and Underbelly, Edinburgh); Country Music (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Frisky and Manish: Just Too Much (Udderbelly, London and Edinburgh); and recording director for The Old Vic’s production of Cause Celebre on Radio 4.

LISTINGS                                                                                                                                                                  

EVEN MORE… GHOST STORIES BY CANDLELIGHT

Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmonds
6 October
Box office: 01284 769505 / www.theatreroyal.org

Eastern Angles Theatre, Ipswich
7 October
Box office: 01473 211498 / www.easternangles.co.uk

Harlow Playhouse, Harlow
8 October
Box office: 01279 431945 / www.harlowplayhouse.co.uk

Clifftown Theatre, Southend-on-Sea
9 October
Box office: 01702 328335 / www.clifftowntheatre.co.uk

Wells Maltings, Wells-next-the-Sea
10 October
Box office: 01328 710885 / www.www.wellsmaltings.org.uk

Key Theatre, Peterborough
11 October
Box office: 01733 852992 / www.keytheatre-peterborough.com

The Corn Hall, Diss
13 October
Box office: 01379 652241 / www.www.thecornhall.co.uk

St George’s Theatre, Great Yarmouth
14 October
Box office: 01493 331484 / www.stgeorgestheatre.com 

The Seagull, Lowestoft
15 October
Box office: 0333 666 3366 / www.theseagull.co.uk

The Cut, Halesworth
16 October
Box office: 0300 303 3211 / www.thecut.org.uk

Dragon Hall, Norwich
17 October
Box office: 01603 877177 / www.nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/visit-us/dragon-hall

Bristol Old Vic, Bristol
21 – 25 October
Box office: 0117 987 7877 / www.bristololdvic.org.uk

Ludlow Assembly Rooms
28 October
Box office: 01584 873229 / www.ludlowassemblyrooms.co.uk

Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham
29 October
Box office: 0121 446 3232 / www.macbirmingham.co.uk

Shakespeare North Playhouse, Prescott
30 – 31 October

Box office: 0151 433 7156 / www.shakespearenorthplayhouse.co.uk 

Battersea Arts Centre, London
4 – 8 November
Box office: 020 7223 2223 / www.bac.org.uk