Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman, the writer-directors behind the spooky stage and screen success of Ghost Stories, return with The Psychic, now playing at the Theatre Royal, York. The play centres on Sheila Gold, supposedly Britain’s most accurate psychic, who insists to new clients that her seance is not theatre, even as the lights dim and a bell tinkles of its own accord. The production aims to unnerve audiences with grinding sound effects and sudden lighting bursts, toying with belief in voices from beyond the grave.
In the lead role, Eileen Walsh excels as Sheila, switching from a glitzy entertainer in a sparkling pink jacket to a hard-bitten operator, building on the received wisdom of ten generations of fortune tellers. The female-centred tale follows 18-year-old Tara (Megan Placito) as she tries to inherit Sheila’s fairground wisdom, while matriarch Rosa (Frances Barber) undermines the daughter she schooled. The script is littered with showman language, from the jossers whose fortunes they read to the oojas who mentor them, adding to the impression of ancient knowledge being passed down.
Dyson and Nyman request that audiences keep plot twists secret, a reasonable request in the first half where nothing is as it seems. However, in the second half, the ideas dry up. With little to surprise beyond the odd jarring sound effect, the play drifts towards Victorian melodrama: too much expository dialogue, too little tension, and an ending that is uncharacteristically predictable.
