We sent our reviewer James to watch A Haunted House

With the ongoing issues with Princes Street, the Assembly team have done an incredible job with a very quick turnaround of moving two of their venues up the road to St Andrews Square and as you step into the Front Room, you would be forgiven for thinking they were still putting the finishing touches to it as the sound of drills and hammers and construction periodically interrupt the intro music to A Haunted House.

Inside, you are greeted by a beautiful, intricately built model of the suitably creepy house where you will be spending the next hour, and realise that the work is actually going on in there, not outside. The lights go down and when the stage is lit again, your faded, black-lycra-and-tailcoat-clad dandy host, David Hoskin, awaits to take you on the tour. Dare you follow?

Although the show is a little scattergun tonally and there are definitely some creepy moments, it heavily leans on the comedy side of this horror-comedy confection. Hoskin is a very good comedy performer, but in the particular show reviewed here, the audience took a wee while to warm up and even then were still not desperately vocal. I’m not sure if it’s the heat this year or what, but the audiences at a number of comedy shows have often been quite quiet and reserved. This is of course their prerogative, but it can make it tough for the acts. Still, Hoskin handles it very well, maintaining the energy and keeping the comedy coming – verbal jokes, sight gags, and a lot of mime and physical comedy. The crowd repay him at the end by being much more demonstrably appreciative, suitably clapping and cheering and whooping.

The tour takes you through various locations in the house and its grounds and we meet an eclectic array of its inhabitants, some human, some maybe less so. As often with vignette-type shows like this, some hit better than others. One or two are fractionally on the overlong side and it is sometimes a little unclear exactly where we are supposed to be and why, but it’s all consistently fun. There is a fair amount of audience interaction, but it is not confrontational, rather for the most part it’s quite whimsical.

There are a number of your standard haunted house tropes which work well enough, but the piece is at its best when it leans into its weird, unique horrors. I don’t wish to give anything away, so I will just say ‘eyes’ and leave it at that. That one will stay with me for days.

A Haunted House is a fun wee way to spend your afternoon and I think, if you’re in the comedy-horror frame of mind, it could be spine-tinglingly good.

Rating: ***’ 3.5 stars

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