High Tide offers even more frights
Posted on 14th October 2025
Last year, I was fortunate enough to attend the second iteration of HighTide’s trio of supernatural tales at the spookily evocative Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds, so I came to this third outing with high expectations. On this occasion, the company were performing at the Corn Hall, a building no less impressive in its own way, but one designed for commerce. Fittingly, Even More Ghost Stories was grounded far more in reality – if such a claim can be made about the supernatural – with Lu Herbert’s handsome industrial set replacing the otherworldly setting of last year’s production. This leaner, meaner sequel was an altogether more focused, gut punching affair.
Once again championing emerging playwrights, the evening offered four contrasting tales that ranged from the unnerving to the viscerally horrific. The elephant in the room – perhaps that should be the ghost in the machine – was a technical issue during the first tale, Florence Espeut-Nickless’s The White Horse. It was unfortunate as, for the most part Jonathan Chan’s lighting, Anna Short’s sound, and John Bullieid’s illusions added texture and atmosphere to the production. Clearing the auditorium while they presumably fiddled with switches torpedoed the tension that had been so brilliantly wound by Guimaraes-Tolley’s acting and Espeut-Nickless’s text, and that was a great pity.
Once back on track, the evening thankfully regained its grip on the audience. The Takeover by Anne Odeke was probably the strongest, in no small part due to Keaton Guimaraes-Tolley’s extraordinary performance as the hapless ghost hunter possessed by the subject of his podcast. Rosa Torr’s The Consequence of Diving Lotts was inventively fantastical, while Cold Oak Lane by Simon Longman was unapologetically gruesome. Diving Lotts cheekily borrowed from MR James’s Casting the Runes, while Cold Oak Lane shocked with a heart rending outpouring of repentant grief. In both, Sarita Gabony offered up clearly contrasting protagonists without resorting to caricature.
This was a highly polished production with an unfortunate, and uncharacteristic, blip. Airbrush the unscheduled hiatus from the memory, and you’re left with brilliant performances, deliciously crafted tales and production values rarely seen in touring shows.