University of Dallas News

Issue date: 10/30/07 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Three ghost hunters and a Jack-o-Lantern face the unknown in "Hauntings", three classic ghost stories enacted by the UD Theatre (l. to r. Tim Maher, Christine Murphy and Donny Covington

Although the bill for this semester's mainstage production is entitled "Hauntings," it doesn't seem very haunting as I enter the cozy drama building. Music plays in the background, Oriental rugs litter the floor, and soon I am seated with cookies and punch in hand, saying thank you to a Victorian maid.

Not only does it not seem scary, it also does not especially seem as though I am at the theater. There is no traditional stage and the actors wander among the audience, inquiring after their health and offering more refreshment. Such close contact provides an opportunity to scrutinize the actors' costumes, only to find that they are not in costume but appear to be casually wearing their street clothes. Soon it seems as though they are not actors at all and I begin to feel that I am the odd one in their whole, complete, natural universe.

The show soon begins with "The Inexperienced Ghost," and this compact little universe remains seamlessly intact as I watch the story of a rather sorry ghost trying to return to 'his' world. Christine Murphy, as the wayward spirit, gives a performance that is funny, endearing, and captivating-all from beneath a ghostly exterior. The levity is brought to an abrupt halt as the first show closes, giving me my first genuine chill of the evening.

This is the pattern the rest of the production assumes-first, I am sniggering at Victorian society games, then I am swallowing a lump of dread at the effects of black magic in "The Casting of the Runes." Similarly, in "Hauntings at Grantely Grange," I laugh aloud at a love-sick couple played by Stephan Dammen and Audrey Ahern, a boisterous madam of the house, played by Catherine Dooghe, and a mustached butler, played by Donny Covington-then I hold my breath at the secret to the ghostly condition of two brothers, played by James Mackenzie and Tim Maher.

The stories are so finely crafted, so well performed, and so delicately designed that at times I completely forgot that I was supposed to be scared, which makes the spooky sections all the more effective. Director Patrick Kelly manages to bring traditional ghost stories to vivid and chilling reality-aided in no small part by masterful costumes from Suzie Cox and subtle, creative lighting from Tristan Decker.

I left the mainstage haunted indeed but followed by a phantom or a menacing spirit. Rather, I am haunted by the feeling that I have just stepped from a strange world where magic, mystery, and yes, ghosts are real.

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