Dickens ghost stories with a comedy twist on the Eastbourne stage

Adapted and directed by Gavin Robertson and performed by Nicholas Collett, The Ghost Of A Smile was originally supposed to run in December 2021, but performances were washed out by a burst water pipe.

“If it’s not Covid, it’s something else!” says adapter ​and director Gavin Robertson. The show will be performed by Nicholas Collett. Between them they are promising “tales with a tingle, but also a giggle, two yarns to chill and charm, stories with a shiver and a smile! – like The Woman in Black but funnier and with fewer people!

“The Queer Chair from The Pickwick Papers tells the story of Tom Smart, who sheltering from a storm for the night, gets more than he bargained for – from a wizened and debauched piece of furniture! In The Ghosts of The Mail, after a well-lubricated party in the old town of Edinburgh, Jack Martin climbs into a compound containing the derelict skeletons of old coaches and falls asleep whereupon he wakes as a passenger on an eighteenth-century mail coach, with three creepy companions.”

It comes from the team that brought you Spitfire Solo, Bond and The Six-Sided Man and is promised as the perfect ghostly experience.

Gavin Robertson comes from a physical theatre background (Lecoq, Lindsay Kemp, Gaulier) creating and performing his own work for national and international touring. He has a diverse portfolio of productions including Bond, Crusoe, Spittoon, The Three Musketeers, The Six-Sided Man, Fantastical Voyage, Escape From The Planet of The Day That Time Forgot and many others. Nicholas Collett is an award-winning actor, director, writer and producer. His theatre work includes A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Winter’s Tale at the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Barbican and Bombur in The Hobbit at the Queen’s Theatre in London. He has appeared in over 40 productions in repertory across the UK. His Spitfire Solo, Nelson, The Sailors’ Story and Your Bard have toured the UK, USA and Australia

Tickets via [email protected]. Grove Theatre, Eastbourne: Dec 16 at 7.30pm and Dec 17 at 7.30pm and Dec 18 at 2.30pm.