This new play, Medium, was developed by The Lantern Theatre which has now been awarded Arts Council funding for a short tour, following a successful, 5*** run at Brighton Fringe in May this year.
The playwright, Isaac Freeman, was inspired by a found, anonymous memoir discovered during the renovation of an old Victorian house in London. The writer confessed that he had been a fraudulent spiritualist and medium.
In 1875, two of London’s favourite spiritualist Mediums are waiting for a Séance to begin but not everything is as it appears to be – at least to one of them. Who is really pulling the strings? And what exactly is it that is haunting them?
Isaac’s imagination was fired by this scenario, and he created a world where the lines between coercive control and free will are blurred, where illusion and reality merge and where the gullible are ensnared by the cynical.
By setting these issues in the patriarchal, colonial past, their continuing presence in
society is thrown into sharper focus. The coercive control depicted is not gender specific – the male antagonist bullies another man, a naïve and lonely widower from Brighton.
This victim, in turn, dares to raise concerns about his young fiancée being subjected to sexual assault by another Medium within the ‘Society’, who insists it was ‘the spirits who touched’ her.
This witty, chilling, gothic tale is perfect for these Halloween nights.
Directed by Janette Eddisford this is a haunting exploration of power, belief and deceit — where the true ghosts may be those of guilt and control.
Cast:
Thompson – Luke O’Dell
The Man – Daniel Finlay
Madeleine Brooks – Bek MacGeekie
Campbell – Dominic Heart
