(Sophie Nield’s article appeared in the Guardian, 11/1.)
With the ghost of old Hamlet stalking the stage at the National Theatre and Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman's Ghost Stories continuing to chill audiences at the Duke of York's Theatre in London's West End, the long and eerie tradition of stage ghosts is experiencing another rebirth. But why does the theatre remain so fascinated with the spectral? More than film, photography or television, with their inbuilt capacity to fool the eye, ghosts in the theatre really spook us. There seems to be something about seeing the undead live that chills us all the more.
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