Working with Hanna Slattne of the Tinderbox Company in Belfast, we were challenged to create a world that would function with an interior logic of its own. The catch? That world had to include the paranormal. Logical ghosts? Why on Earth not?

Working with Kelsey and Kate the Younger (who I expect to sally forth on a quest every time I address her that way, because it just sounds like an ancient Anglo-Saxon king), we developed the plot sketch for every actor’s most harrowing ghost story: the playwright who will not let his script disappear.

Having died in a freak accident before the completed script of his play could be put on the stage, this mysterious playwright refuses to let go of the reins of his piece. He lurks in the wings of the theater, sitting in on rehearsals and silently fuming that the actors and directors are taking his play in entirely the wrong direction. However, he doesn’t allow himself to sit for long.

Taking advantage of his poltergeist status and ability to interact with physical objects, if not be seen and heard by humans directly, the Ghost of Playwrights Past generally wreaks havoc on rehearsals whenever an artistic decision is made that does not gel with his vision for the script. He changes words on the actors’ scripts, makes the spotlight follow a character downstage instead of remaining put, and in one notable case turns on a fog machine for attention when the cast is obstinately interpreting the script for itself.

The question then arises, of course: do the actors know that a ghost is in their midst? Does this sort of thing happen often? One of the actors is the embodiment of the crazy ghost-hunting uncle that so many of us have. He spends his days watching Ghost Hunters on TV, and at the first whisper of paranormal activity he whips out his arsenal of ghost-hunting tools, ready to scan the theater for the otherworldly. Ghosts might not be common or generally believed in, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t those who are attuned to it.

What’s a cast to do, when the script refuses to remain static on the page? Well, the same as any group of actors, really. Drama and writing is a living art, ready to be re-interpreted and re-imagined each time a different pair of eyes comes across it. In that way, all playwriting is haunted by ghosts: each individual reader haunts the text, and whether we want to agree to their suggestions or not, we cannot deny their impact on the situation.

An eerily literary ghost story, perhaps. #TeamPlaywrightProblems