Bag of Beard’s The Highgate Vampire, playing at The Cockpit, is a highly entertaining night out, with just enough bite to have you avoiding the shadows as you walk home on a cold and wet January night.
Lock the doors and draw the curtains. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I will begin…
This is the strange tale of The Highgate Vampire and the two paranormal investigators, Sean Manchester, a self-proclaimed exorcist, vampire hunter and bishop of the Catholic Church, and David Farrant, a British Occult Society Investigator. One is pompous, conservative, and full of religious zeal (Manchester), and the other (Farrant) believes in earth, fire, and water, the power of the spirit, and likely enjoys a nudist beach in summer.
It’s 1969, and The Rolling Stones are preaching “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” while The Beatles stroll across Abbey Road. Meanwhile, in North London, a host of strange encounters at the famous Highgate Cemetery have reached the ears of Farrant and Manchester. There’s talk of a tall figure with blood-red eyes, people left in trances, and dogs savaged. Determined to uncover the ‘truth’ of these spectral encounters and bloody events, Manchester and Farrant enter into a paranormal sparring match to catch the now-named ‘Highgate Vampire’ in a stranger-than-fiction tale that could only come from the shores of our green and pleasant land.
Directed by Ryan Hutton and written and performed by Alexander Knott and James Demaine, The Highgate Vampire, now playing at The Cockpit, London until February 1, is a highly entertaining exploration of the case. This beautifully written and performed two-person play (with a delightful cameo from an eager production assistant named Audrey) blends meta-theatre with classic Hammer Horror and sketch comedy in exploring the dark corners and comic absurdity of this real-life tale.
From the opening scene, the audience is part of the action as the scene is set, a lecture on the Hightgate Vampire led by two men, both sworn enemies, Patrick Sheffield (Alexander Knott) and Daniel Farringdon (James Demaine), who both individually claim to have vanquished the Vampire stalking late ’60s and early ’70s North London. It could be argued that the audience is a jury for their claims, as they begin discussing the ham-fisted ‘investigation’ they both led, which led to press embellishment and eventual public hysteria. But what starts as a lecture soon morphs into a delightful tale of religious zealotry versus spiritual inquiry as two egos vie for the audience’s ears and minds.
Knott and Demaine are intensely entertaining to watch as this sparring match unfolds. As they dance around the ring attempting to prove the unprovable, their beliefs and ideals are caught between a few too many viewings of The Exorcist at their local ODEON and a host of boyhood fantasies played out for all to see. Do these men really believe in their investigation? Of course they do! But they, like everyone else, are also caught up in the media circus and hysteria surrounding tales of a demonic force drinking the blood of innocent dogs, and maybe humans. Even when their strange and flawed investigation comes to a rather Monty Python-esque finale, they still believe!
Full to the brim with delightful one-liners and memorable, highly flawed eyewitnesses (all played by Knott and Demaine), The Highgate Vampire also features moments of wonderfully staged gothic horror, where sound lighting and smoke replace the laughs. However, here, the venue ultimately limits the power of these horror interludes. That is not a criticism of The Cockpit, a delightful fringe venue. Still, one can’t help but wonder whether this supernatural tale would be further enhanced by a location such as Wilton’s Music Hall in East London or The Vaults in Waterloo. But place and atmosphere aside, Bag of Beard’s The Highgate Vampire is a highly entertaining night out, with just enough bite to have you avoiding the shadows as you walk home on a cold and wet January night.
The Highgate Vampire is playing at The Cockpit, London, through to February 1 – book tickets.
Follow Us