A Truly Improbable Story


When I was about fifteen a ghost appeared in our house.
It was a poltergeist, that is it threw things around and was generally mischievous. It was there for about three days and then it seemed to go. Although on a few occasions odd things would happen it was never again like it was on that half-term holiday.

I was alone in the house at the time except for my best friend Karl. When it was gone we were told not to tell other people about it by our parents and it became our secret. We nicknamed the ghost "Polty". At first it was important to me to convince other people that what I had seen was true, after all I had seen impossible things happen. Then I realised it wasn't important. I knew what had happened, it was my truth and it didn't matter whether people believed me or not. After I had left home my parents moved away from 70 Hill Lane and "Polty" became a story that I would tell people now and again.

It was recenlty that I began to think of "Polty" again and realised what a formative experience his visit to our house was. There are threads in my life that seem to reach right back to 70 Hill Lane with its strange atmosphere and that dark attic room from which odd objects were thrown. In telling the story of "Polty" I have discovered that there were other stories in that house that needed to be told. As I do this show I intend to find out which stories get told. Maybe they will be different from night to night.

In watching these stories you must remember that these are my stories, my version of the truth.

Other people may well remember things differently.

Phelim McDermott 96

Written by:
Phelim McDermott
with additional material by Guy Dartnell and Steve Tiplady.

Performers:
Guy Dartnell, Steve Tiplady and Phelim McDermott

Lighting Design and Production Management
Colin Grenfell

Music composed, performed and directed by:
Ben Park

Directed and Designed by:
Lee Simpson and Julian Crouch

Administration:
Nick Sweeting

Back to the Main Page