Horrific treats in store!

Manchester is to see a crop of spooky live entertainments emerge in the two weeks around Halloween, and Scytheplays Ltd is pleased to be contributing to the chills.

October 26th-28th and November 2nd and 4th will see Chinatown pub The Seven Oaks play host to a new production of Humpty's Bones, based on the novella by acclaimed British horror author Simon Clark.  A chilling discovery in the remote Yorkshire village of Dog Lands leads the incoming Laird family into a tense confrontation with local history and the hidden power of the moor...  Adapted and produced by Sean Mason (V for Vendetta), Humpty's Bones was first adapted as part of Scytheplays and Lass Productions' 2013 offering, Hotel Midnight ("suitably chilling" said the Fiction Stroker).  The new version will be directed by regular Scytheplays technican Peter M George and the cast includes Catryn Philbin, Lauren Stirrup, Pat Brocklehurst and Andrew Marsden, who also worked with Scytheplays in Hotel Midnight and Who@50: An Unearthly Child.

Tickets for Humpty's Bones are £7.50 on the door (£5.50 concessions) or you can save money by booking online at the following links:

Humpty's Bones - Monday 26th October
Humpty's Bones - Tuesday  27th October
Humpty's Bones - Wednesday 28th October
Humpty's Bones - Monday 2nd November
Humpty's Bones - Wednesday 4th November

Also in Manchester are two spine-tinglingly fun comedy shows.  Top improvisors ComedySportzUK present an improvised horror story in Stage Fright at the King's Arms, Salford on  Friday 23rd October.  Your suggestions will inspire a bone-chilling tale that will make you scream with laughter as the acclaimed team spoof the tropes of horror.  The show begins at 7.30pm and tickets are £3 on the door.

Meanwhile, popular showcase of new comedy writing, The Sitcom Trials returns to Manchester for a Halloween Special at the King's Arms on Sunday 25th October.  Have they found the newAddams Family?  The new Munsters?  The new Garth Marenghi?  Five ghoulish new comedies performed in one night. The future of sitcom will be in the audience's (blood-stained) hands.  Again the show begins at 7.30pm and tickets are £3 on the door.

Howard Whittock, star of The Dead, Live (photo: Shay Rowan)

Finally for this Halloween season, Scytheplays and Oldham Library are presenting a script-in-hand reading of an unusual new play by Together in Electric Dreams writer, Daniel Thackeray, entitled The Dead, Live, on Thursday 29th October at 7pm in the Library's Performance Space.  Martin Barlow is a popular psychic medium who knows he's a fake, but the world of Spirit may hold some surprises for him...  Presented as a work-in-progress, this performance will be free to attend and followed by a Q&A session with the writer and cast in which audience feedback will be very much encouraged.  The cast will include The Year of the Sex Olympics actor Howard Whittock.