Some shows work their magic on you slowly but Kirsty Mann will have you hooked in under a minute. A thunderous sound effect, a flash of blood-red lighting and a DIY ghost costume is all it takes to get the audience strapped in for her comic tale of a haunting. “Are you a believer?” she asks us. Mann may not convince you of supernatural powers but she overwhelmingly proves the power of storytelling.
It succeeds partly because our host is such a natural on stage and so rational, too. Mann quickly comes across as an ordinary neighbour, even while detailing the most uncommon events of moving into her new home. When she and her husband snapped up a semi in east London they knew it was a fixer-upper but it turns out the knotweed is the least of their problems. The previous resident died in the same bed in which they consummate their moving in and it gets creepier by the day. Why does the toilet seemingly flush itself? Are those scratch marks on the bedroom door? What the hell is going on under the apple tree?
