‘It makes us smile’: Ryan Simons discusses the Dread and Immediacy of ‘Shock Horror’…
Audiences in Dundee have just recovered from their visit to the Metropol. Shock Horror: A Ghost Story, the touring chiller from Thunder Road Theatre, recently completed its only Scottish run at Dundee Rep, leaving a trail of unnerved theatre-goers in its wake. The show, which continues its UK tour until early November, is billed as “Stranger Things meets The Woman in Black” and has been earning its reputation, with Theatre News praising its brilliant combination of “live performance, illusion and film.”
The show’s writer-director, Ryan Simons, certainly seems to be enjoying the reaction. Speaking to the Leeds Grand Theatre’s blog earlier on the tour, he noted one particularly memorable show report “stated that several people had run out terrified.” This is the brainchild of Simons, a writer-director trained in both theatre and film, who was commissioned to translate cinematic scares to a live audience.
The play follows Herbert, a man who grew up in the eerie, abandoned Metropol cinema. Now, he’s returned to search for answers to his past, but the real horror is only just beginning. For Simons, the play evolved from a completely different concept.
Speaking to the Leeds Grand Theatre’s blog earlier on the tour, he noted one particularly memorable show report “stated that several people had run out terrified.”
“The initial idea was Alex’s [Moran, who plays Herbert], though in a very different form,” Simons explains. “Originally, we explored conspiracy theories, but it never clicked.” The breakthrough came when they leaned into the world that Simons, a horror film producer, knew best. “It wasn’t until Herbert (our haunted protagonist) began to speak about his love of 70s and 80s horror cinema that the play began to take shape. We put him in the derelict cinema he once called home, and scene after scene just leapt off the page.”
‘It’s all about atmosphere’
Horror is notoriously difficult to pull off on stage. Without the safety net of CGI or the controlled frame of a camera, creating genuine frights requires a different set of tools. For Simons, the secret isn’t just the jump-scare; it’s the slow, creeping build.
“It’s all about atmosphere,” he insists. “Scares on stage are difficult to create, but if you get under the skin of the audience with the story and the characters, everyone feels trapped with the horror right in front of them.”
This shared experience is what gives the play its unique power. The fusion of live performance and big-screen action is designed to blur the lines between Herbert’s past and the audience’s present. The goal is to make the audience feel as trapped as the protagonist. As Simons notes with some satisfaction, the team knows when it’s working. “It always makes us smile when the audience has leapt out of their seats within the first five minutes.”
Remaining Tour Dates
Oct 31 – Nov 1: Birmingham Rep
Nov 3: The Arts Centre, Edge Hill University Ormskirk
Nov 5: Lighthouse Poole
Nov 6 – Nov 8: Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch
‘You’re in the same room as the nightmare’
While Shock Horror is steeped in cinematic language, Simons is a firm believer in what the live stage alone can deliver. He argues that theatre, as a medium, possesses one thing that film, for all its technical wizardry, can never replicate.
“It always makes us smile when the audience has leapt out of their seats within the first five minutes.”
“Immediacy,” he states. “It’s right there in front of you. You’re in the same room as Herbert, experiencing the same waking nightmare as he is. You can feel the sense of dread wash over the audience as things start to wake in the dark.”
This “waking nightmare” is key. The story of Herbert’s escape from the Metropol and his disturbed parents is not just a ghost story. As the tour continues to captivate audiences across the UK, Simons points to the emotional core that grounds the scares, a theme of a child haunted by more than just spirits. “Beneath the scares, it’s a story about isolation,” Simons says, “and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.”
Featured Image: Herbert with graffiti behind – Courtesy of Thunder Road Theatre
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