'I know when certain things are coming and I still jump…'
With his scary new stage show set to arrive at the Lowry in the wake of Halloween, It Walks Around the House at Night playwright Tim Foley manages to keep Cult Manchester's Andy Murray in suspense about what’s actually in it. Productions photos: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
Back in 2010, I interviewed Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman about their new play Ghost Stories. It was for a preview piece - the play was then in rehearsals and was yet to open – and already it was clear that the whole thing was cloaked in secrecy for maximum effect. What, if anything, I asked the pair, could they actually tell me about it? ‘Nothing!’ they said, as they roared with laughter. And fair enough, really: horror often relies upon keeping its secrets.
Since then, there's been a whole wave of major new horror plays, including 2:22 - A Ghost Story, A Ghost in Your Ear, The Enfield Haunting, Paranormal Activity, The Haunting of Hill House... and let's not forget The Woman in Black, arguably the inspiration for them all, which only recently vacated the West End stage after an amazing 33-year run.
Now, for the sinister season, The Lowry is welcoming another entry: It Walks Around the House at Night from ThickSkin Theatre Company, by playwright Tim Foley. So, let's try to find out which of the play's secrets, if any, Tim is willing to divulge...
Cult Manchester: So, what exactly can you tell us about It Walks Around the House at Night?
Tim Foley: Yeah... I can't really say much! I think we could talk about the premise. I mean, it does go to surprising places, because it has to - I think that is baked into horror theatre. You do want the surprise. But yeah, the premise… you'll have seen the blurb: an out-of-work actor is hired to do a ghost walk. I think we could talk about that, but any further - I mean, even saying that there's stuff that we can't talk about, I don't know how much of a spoiler that is...
CM: How would you describe the play, then?
Tim: I would just go with the officially sanctioned blurb, so as not to put my foot in it. Yeah - so, it's the story of an out-of-work actor called Joe [played by George Naylor], who is hired to be a ghost in the grounds of a spooky house out in the countryside. That's where we start. And we go on some evening walks with him...
CM: And what can audiences expect?
Tim: Well, the audience might expect scares. They should also expect laughter as well. I think it's quite a funny show - at least, it starts funny. What else might they expect? Oh, I mean, just a visual and aural extravaganza. The lighting's great, the sound's great, the movement's great. Everyone's brought their 'A' game. That's kind of what ThickSkin do. They don't just sort of put a play on, it's a real physical, visceral piece.
CM: What was the genesis of the show? How did it come together?
Tim: I worked with ThickSkin on a previous show called Driftwood [in 2024], which was a two-hander set on a beach. Doing a beach in a theatre is always a bit of a stretch, but I like to do these ridiculous gestures. One of my ridiculous stage directions was that a monster rises out of the sea at the end. It was done phenomenally, with lights and sounds and masks. It was all about what you didn't see, as well as what you did see. I thought it was terrific. I thought it was terrifying. I said to Neil [Bettles, director], 'that was spooky, let's do more spooky stuff.
Luckily, I found a kindred spirit in Neil, someone else who likes scary stuff. His touchstones are all very modern horror films that I would be too squeamish to watch. My touchstones stem from [classic ghost story writers] M.R. James, Arthur Macken, Algernon Blackwood - what a legend! - and, you know, creepy 60s and 70s television. I'm an old soul at heart.
CM: And It Walks Around the House at Night delivers proper scares?
Tim: Yeah, I would say so. There's a few... I don't want to give anything away, but I'll just say, I know when certain things are coming and I still jump. It's sort of the magic of theatre: you can be expecting it or not expecting it, and it's still just like, whoa! So yes, I think it is quite scary, and it definitely goes to a place of horror that you might not be expecting in your typical haunted house ghost story. We descend into a new, fun layer, which I enjoy.
CM: How do you feel about the current fashion for horror and ghost shows?
Tim: Oh, I feel great about it! It's not just about a story, it's like an experience. It's getting your drink at the bar and sitting down and strapping in for a bit of a spooky rollercoaster. Yeah, let's get horror back on stage!
I've definitely talked with other writer friends who think that stages are haunted anyway, and not necessarily in a spooky sense. It's just, you can't help but be aware of, 'oh, Laurence Olivier was on this stage,' or something. They are spaces that constantly have footfall and huge characters and big stories on, and you can't help but see them and feel like there's something a bit sacred about them.
I guess I'll be doing a re-watch of [Nigel Kneale's 1972 TV drama about a group of researchers in a haunted mansion] The Stone Tape this season, and there is something in that idea - an impression's been left on the space and you can't help but feel a reverence for it.
CM: From a relatively modest start, the play seems to have become really quite successful - it's currently on a UK tour. Is there more to come? Will it have some sort of future life?
Tim: Yeah - I don't want to jinx anything, but I don't think this will be the end. I think we've been very lucky. We're a fairly small company, nobody knows who I am, but just something about the name of the play, and probably the poster, was enough to sort of kickstart it. I mean, we've been sold out at most places we've ever done it. You rely on word of mouth and people being like 'oh yeah, that's scary.' I'm glad that it's touring, because the one thing about theatre is it can be very exclusive and often routed in London. And I'm really glad that we're going to The Lowry, because it's a bit of a homecoming, for both for me and the team (ThickSkin is based in Wigan; Tim was born in Teesside but now lives in south Manchester). And we're there for a week, so that'll be good.
CM: You've got a whole separate career side-hustle writing for Big Finish, the company that makes licenced Doctor Who audio dramas - something you've been doing very successfully for years. Do people in the theatre world regard that as fascinating or odd or ludicrous or brilliant... or what?
Tim: I think, in terms of the theatres themselves and the commissioners, they find it a somewhat unusual quirk. It's odd explaining what it is as well, because, you know, it's Doctor Who, but it's for radio, and it's not the current Doctor, it's Tom Baker. They're like… hang on, what?
But in terms of audiences, this is a ghost play and that itself is quite nerdy, I guess. We get a lot of horror fans, but there's been lots of people who've known my Doctor Who work and have brought CDs for me to sign, and that's never happened to me with any other plays. So I like to think that this play is kind of like a merger of the two worlds.
I think people who like my Doctor Who stuff would enjoy it. It's still got my same sense of humour. There's no escaping that. Maybe that's the real horror...
It Walks Around the House at Night comes to the Salford Lowry on 3-7 November 2026. Trailer and tickets here.
More about ThickSkin here.
