Illustration by Paul Lowe

A WARNING TO THE CURIOUS:
TWO GHOST STORIES BY M R JAMES

Performed by Robert Lloyd Parry

"Storytelling at its finest . . ." The Stage

A Warning to the Curious is the final instalment in Nunkie’s M R James trilogy, following the critically acclaimed A Pleasing Terror and the prize winning Oh, Whistle . . .

Lost Hearts features one of James's most memorable black magicians, the predatory scholar Mr. Abney. It is paired here with one of James' most poignant and personal works: in A Warning to the Curious, inspired by the author's holidays in Aldeburgh, a young archaeologist is haunted and hunted by the guardian of an ancient treasure. The English seaside has never looked so menacing.

Suitable for ages 13+
Performance lasts approx 100 minutes including interval.
WARNING: CONTAINS MOMENTS OF PLEASING TERROR

Illustration by Paul Lowe

OH, WHISTLE . . .
TWO GHOST STORIES BY M R JAMES

Performed by Robert Lloyd Parry

Winner of the Dracula Society Hamilton Deane Award 2007

**** Lloyd Parry's beautifully modulated performance is perfectly judged to send an enjoyable chill down the spine. Metro

Over a century after they were first published, the ghost stories of M R James retain their power to terrify and amuse. Following his critically acclaimed one-man show A Pleasing Terror Robert Lloyd Parry brings two more of James' classic spine-chillers back to life.

Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad - a tale of nocturnal horror on the Suffolk coast - is considered by many to be the author's masterpiece. It is beautifully complemented here by The Ash Tree, a story of witchcraft and vengeance down the generations.

Suitable for ages 13+
Performance lasts approx 100 minutes including interval.
WARNING: CONTAINS MOMENTS OF PLEASING TERROR

Illustration by Paul Lowe

A PLEASING TERROR:
TWO GHOST STORIES BY M R JAMES

Performed by Robert Lloyd Parry



***** Wonderful, magical storytelling. A pleasing reminder that the spoken word can be as spine-chilling as anything in the cinema . . . The Daily Mail

This critically acclaimed one-man show is an atmospheric retelling of two of the earliest and greatest tales by M R James - the master of the English ghost story.

In Canon Alberic's Scrap-book, a young Cambridge antiquary discovers the devil in the details of an old book in a medieval town in the French Pyrenees… In The Mezzotint a ghoulish revenge is enacted within a work of art, before the helpless eyes of a museum curator in Oxford . . .

A Pleasing Terror has been performed over 100 times since premiering in M R James' old office in the Fitzwilliam Museum in December 2005. Many performances have been in venues closely associated with the author: Eton College, Great Livermere Church in Suffolk, the Fitzwilliam Museum, and the Provosts Lodge and Chapel of King's College, Cambridge.

A Pleasing Terror was nominated for the 2006 Dracula Society Hamilton Deane Award.

Suitable for ages 13+
Performance lasts approx 100 minutes including interval.
WARNING: CONTAINS MOMENTS OF PLEASING TERROR

BLOOD, BONE AND GENIUS:
Benjamin Robert Haydon,
historical painter, in his own words

Written and performed by Robert Lloyd Parry

"Genius was not put on this earth to obey laws, but make them . . ."

The diary of Benjamin Robert Haydon [1786-1846] is the most entertaining, vainglorious and ultimately tragic document of the Romantic period. Friend of Wordsworth and Keats, champion of the Elgin Marbles, scourge of the Royal Academy: this self-proclaimed saviour of British Art charmed and argued his way through the early 19th century, recording his triumphs and humiliations in hilarious and touching detail.

Originally written to complement the exhibition The Body Politic at the Royal Academy in 2007, this new one-man play by Robert Lloyd Parry brings Haydon's raging prose back to life. It was first performed in the historic life drawing room of the Royal Academy Schools on 22nd June 2007, the 161st anniversary of the artist's death.

"If this be delusion, if I am mad, then so was Columbus mad when he obeyed the roaring of the Atlantic winds!"

Blood, Bone and Genius uses the artist's diaries and autobiography to relate the rise and fall of this tragi-comic artistic hero.