Female Gothic

Saturday evening found us at the Dukes in Lancaster, with friends, enjoying Dyad Production's latest performance: Female Gothic.

This one woman show was fabulous. 75 minutes of spine-chilling and tingling tales, performed on a gloomy stage. Rebecca Vaughan simply owned the stage and held the audience spellbound as the tales, all written by women, unfolded.

First an artist, gripped by the clutching fingers of a dead past. Next, a scientist, defying nature in the dark realm of the senses and finally, an expectant father, driven mad by creeping shadows.

I'm only a recent convert to ghost stories and the Gothic. I've shied away from anything scary before. But I'm loving this new to me genre, and am enjoying exploring M R James, E F Benson and many more Victorian ghost story writers. The genre seems especially fitted to the autumn and festive season. So, curled up by a roaring fire with a glass of wine, I shall be plunging into these fascinating and slightly spooky novels.