This Halloween, NeuNoir theatre presents The Judge’s House – a tale of creeping terror written by Dracula creator Bram Stoker, which is set to visit venues in Stourbridge, Birmingham and Worcester.
Eager to pursue his studies away from familiar distractions, maths student Malcolmson heads to the small sleepy remote market town of Benchurch.
There, he discovers a desolate fortified Jacobean manor. Though once owned by a cruel and merciless ‘hanging judge’ (now deceased), and seemingly feared by superstitious locals, Malcolmson nonetheless deems it perfect.
Moving into the imposing vacant property, his intense study initially goes well until his peace is violently disturbed by an infestation of gnawing rats, whose repellent invasions become bolder and bolder with each passing night …
Author, Bram Stoker, was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1847. A former Civil Servant turned theatre manager and writer, his first short story, The Crystal Cup, was published in 1872, while his debut novel, thriller/romance The Snake’s Pass, arrived in 1890. But it was Dracula, published in 1897, which was to become his literary masterpiece. Hugely influential, the chilling Gothic vampire tale re-shaped the horror genre and launched one of the most enduring characters in popular culture, establishing Stoker’s reputation as a master horror writer.
The Judge’s House was originally published in the Christmas 1891 edition of the weekly Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News before being posthumously re-published as part of a collection which also included the previously unseen Dracula’s Guest (1914). A dark story of a sceptical scholar and a seemingly haunted house, it warns of the inherent dangers of dismissing superstition, and is widely regarded as one of Stoker’s greatest horror achievements.
Read by actor Richard Usher (Sweet Cherry Publishing’s Sherlock Holmes audiobooks; BBC Radio; The Lost Hancocks: Vacant Lot), The Judge’s House is the fourth production from NeuNoir, whose previous spooky outings have included readings of WH Hodgson’s Carnacki: The Ghost Hunter, EF Benson’s The Outcast and MR James’ Casting The Runes.
NeuNoir presents Bram Stoker’s The Judge’s House visits Stourbridge Town Hall (Sat 26 Oct 2024), Birmingham Back-To-Backs (Sun 27 Oct 2024) and Greyfriars House, Worcester (Fri 1 Nov 2024). For tickets and more information, see: neunoir.wordpress.com
LISTINGS
Suggested categories: Stage / Theatre / Halloween
NeuNoir presents:
Bram Stoker’s The Judge’s House
Saturday 26 October 2024
Stourbridge Town Hall, Wollaston Studio, Crown Centre, Crown Lane, Stourbridge DY8 1YE
7.30pm. Tickets £10.
Box Office: 01384 812812
boroughhalls.co.uk
Sunday 27 October 2024
Birmingham Back To Backs, 55-63 Hurst Street/ 50-54 Inge Street, Birmingham B5 4TE
5.30pm & 7.30pm. Tickets: £10
nationaltrust.org.uk/birmingham-back-to-backs
Friday 1 November 2024
Greyfriars House & Garden, Friar Street, Worcester WR1 2LZ
6pm & 8pm. Tickets: £10
Tel: 01905 23571
nationaltrust.org.uk/greyfriars-house-and-garden
ABOUT NEUNOIR
NeuNoir is a Midlands-based theatre company. Delving into the darker corners, the company’s productions include readings of Carnacki: The Ghost Finder (an equine adventure featuring WH Hodgson’s early 20th century supernatural detective Thomas Carnacki); EF Benson’s eerie tale of reincarnation, The Outsider; the classic Casting The Runes, by the master of the genre, MR James; and The Judge’s House, a haunted house chiller from Dracula creator, Bram Stoker.
For more information, see: neunoir.wordpress.com
X/Twitter: @neunoir
Instagram: @neunoirtheatre
Facebook: Neu Noir
ABOUT BRAM STOKER
The third of seven children, Abraham ‘Bram’ Stoker was born in November 1847 in Clontarf, a resort on the outskirts of Dublin, Ireland.
A sickly child, barely able to stand, he was confined to his bed for much of his early years, where he was subject to bloodletting. But he soon recovered fully, and was eventually awarded for his exceptional athletic and sporting endeavours while studying at Trinity College, Dublin.
Like his father, he was a clerk in the Civil Service, and rose through the ranks before eventually leaving for London after famed actor and theatre empresario Sir Henry Irving invited him to manage the Lyceum Theatre, in 1878.
Stoker had met the Irving while penning theatre reviews for the Dublin Evening Mail, a publication co-owned by writer Sheridan Le Fanu. Le Fanu’s seminal 1872 vampire novel, Camilla, is a likely influence on Stoker’s later writings, while Le Fanu’s short story, An Account of Some Strange Disturbances In Aungier Street (1851), like Stoker’s 1891 story The Judge’s House, also boasts a vacant property, rats, and a ‘hanging judge’.
In London, Stoker mixed with such luminaries as Arthur Conan Doyle and Alfred Lord Tennyson, and on American tours met Mark Twain and Walt Whitman, and continued to write when time allowed. Among his literary projects was The Un-Dead, begun in 1890, and eventually published in 1897 as his third novel – Dracula. Gripping the public’s imagination, it made a the author an overnight success.
Though Dracula proved his enduring masterpiece, Stoker went on to publish seven other novels, including a tale of lost treasure, The Mystery Of The Sea (1902), romance The Man (1905) and folklore-inspired horror The Lair of the White Worm (1911).
In the years following Irving’s 1905 death, Stoker’s health deteriorated, and he died in April 1912. The exact cause of death has been open to much discussion, but many believe it to have been syphilis. He was 64.