Gurt Haunted

Staged over six nights at Bristol Old Vic’s Weston Studio, Gurt Haunted offers 80 minutes of knock-about laugh out-loud comedy with a paranormal spoof that is packed with verbal and visual jokes.

This participatory, paranormal parody is both clever and silly but also immensely enjoyable throughout. All three actors, namely Toby Robertshaw, Casey Lloyd and Benji Foster, turn in high-octane comic performances in a show that is entirely written, produced and devised by the cast and creative team.

Throwing all seriousness out the window, the experience of watching Gurt Haunted allows every audience member to let the child within them take over, as the company before them embark on an adventure filled with fake possessions, ghostly giggles, and musical hilarity.

The story takes us behind the scenes of a paranormal television show. In a nutshell, this part-improvised, part-devised, fully Bristolian comedy thriller could be characterised as Most Haunted Live meets This Country.

Together with his team of ‘professional investigators’ and world-renowned spiritualists Toby Chestnut (Lloyd) and Arthur Goodun (Foster), Francis Hailbop (Robertshaw) needs your help to put the spirits of Bristol to rest, or at the very least to get some footage for their newest TV series.

On the night I saw it, I had the added pressure of unknowingly being sat next to director Krista Matthews, who didn’t reveal herself until the show ended. Luckily, I had laughed and clapped in all the right places.

Gurt Haunted originated from an idea up at the Edinburgh Fringe back in 2018, and has grown into a bit of a cult. It grew from Casy, Benji and Toby’s love of the TV show Most Haunted, starring the British medium, Derek Acorah. After trialling the show last year in Weston-Super-Mare and sold out performances in Bristol’s Alma Tavern Theatre, the team took the show into redevelopment, which has now brought it to the Weston Studio for its biggest run to date.

Lead ghost-hunter, Robertshaw’s Francis Hailbop is a mockery of Acorah, and Lloyd takes on the role of the corrupt host. Foster, meanwhile plays the local historian as well as Reece, a cheerfully hopeless programme assistant, who has the funniest scene of the show when he mimes a spoof version of pop band Take That’s Back For Good.

A Bristol show through and through, Gurt Haunted is aimed at a local audience, who in true Halloween mood, were highly entertained. It’s a light-hearted romp with plenty of laughs that should be watched while clutching a pint of cider.