REVIEW: GHOST STORIES FOR CHRISTMAS at Old Red Lion Playhouse and on tour November & December 2026

‘Compelling traditional storytelling’ ★★★★

It’s already that time of year for stories best told around the fire, preferably involving ghosts. We are in safe hands with experienced storyteller Matthew Wood, who also co-writes and directs Ghost Stories for Christmas, bringing three festive supernatural stories to life.

With a simple set, this production relies solely on Wood’s performance to hold our attention. We begin with H R Wakefield’s story “Lucky’s Grove”. When servants from a country house unwittingly dig up a Christmas tree from a sacred grove, you know it is not going to end well, and we wait for the terrible events to play out. In Algernon Blackwood “The Wendigo” we travel further afield to Northwestern Ontario, where a spirit, based on Algonquian myths, terrorises a hunting party. We finish with a story of Wood’s, again where an ill-fated decision to use a particular tree has devasting consequences. In many ways the strongest story of the three, it draws on many different story conventions and tropes to create an original tale.

The production relies on seasonal storytelling traditions and does not disappoint. Wood delivers the three stories compellingly and holds the audience’s attention. In the first story especially he voices a large collection of characters, and does so well. It was good to hear these tales, less well known to contemporary audiences than similar stories, for example by Dickens and M R James. A seasonably appropriate evening and well worth watching if you are able to catch it.   

Edwyrdian Tales presents:

GHOST STORIES FOR CHRISTMAS based on stories by H R Wakefield, Algernon Blackwood, and Matthew Wood. Directed by Matthew Wood

The Old Red Lion 9 November, then touring: https://www.edwyrdiantales.com/theatre