Showing @ King’s Theatre, Edinburgh until Sat 13 Oct

One of the most erroneous views of tragicomedy is that its compound strands were miraculously united during the formative years of modern theatre. In truth, tragedy and comedy always went together, as polar opposites affirming each other’s position at reverse ends of the theatrical spectrum, but also showing that if a playwright stumbles fractionally from the summit of one, he or she can wake in the depths of the other.

Alan Ayckbourn has been a master puppeteer in this area, pulling at the strings of situational comedy in his early days before maturing to unveil tragic family dynamics and mundane betrothal. His 1994 chiller, Haunting Julia, clings to the ideas of parental gloom and regret, but is whetted with an explicit comment on paternal dominance. Set twelve years after Joe’s (Duncan Preston) daughter commits suicide, her bedroom (now enshrined as a mini museum) is revisited by Joe, her student flame Andy (Joe McFadden) and psychic Ken (Richard O’Callaghan). As with most supernatural thrillers, secrets about Julia’s death are revealed and the three men discover that their memories are distinctly more haunting than any ghost or ghoul.

This is far from the brooding menace of Hitchcock or King, and Andrew Hall’s production contains nowhere near as many scares as Stephen Mallatratt’s The Woman in Black. Still, many of the messages embedded by Ayckbourn are completely irresistible. The characters reveal early on that Julia was troubled at school but found solace in her virtuoso musical ability, generating reams of manuscript scored with startlingly intricate tunes. So her decision to commit suicide openly gestures to the pressures of unrivalled talent, the limitations of creative freedom and the particular joylessness of premature success. Her death is a symbol of punishing faculty; but instead of settling on the point, Ayckbourn signals to an overprotective father trying to shield his daughter from the harsh realities of life, but inevitably catering for his own dogma.

And yet, the playwright’s story is laboriously told and doesn’t come close to the level of entertainment thrillers should offer. Preston and McFadden give slightly stiff performances, while O’Callaghan shines. He brings the spookiness to life with groans and mystic calls to the spirit world, trapped in his own search for closure after his connection to Julia is exposed. There is admittedly something hammy about it all; this is naturally true of any ghost story but it just doesn’t feel like Ayckbourn in his element. The themes of this production: paternal guilt, artistic torment and memorialisation are shadows of the zealous social mores Ayckbourn is able to conjure up in his universal, direct and altogether more rounded dramas.

Listings:

HAUNTING JULIA

By Alan Ayckbourn

Starring Duncan Preston, Richard O’Callaghan, Joe McFadden and Louise Kempton

King’s Theatre, Edinburgh
Tues 9 – Sat 13 October 2012
Evenings 7.30pm, Matinees Wednesday & Saturday, 2.30pm

Tickets: £14-£26.00

Booking: 0131 529 6000 / www.edtheatres.com

Full UK Tour Listings:

Mercury Theatre Colchester

Wednesday 29 August – Saturday 8 September

01206 573 948; www.mercurytheatre.co.uk

Woking New Victoria Theatre

Tuesday 11 – Saturday 15 September

0844 871 7645 www.atgtickets.com

Bromley Churchill Theatre

Monday 17 – Saturday 22 September
08448 717 620 www.atgtickets.com

Richmond Theatre

Monday 24 – Sat 29 September

0844 871 7651 www.atgtickets.com

Canterbury Marlowe Theatre

Monday 1 – Saturday 6 October

01227 787 787 www.marlowetheatre.com

Edinburgh King’s Theatre

Tuesday 9 – Saturday 13 October
0131 529 6000 www.edtheatres.com/kings

Wolverhampton Grand

Monday 15 – Saturday 20 October

01902 42 92 12 www.grandtheatre.info

Derby Theatre

Monday 22 – Saturday 27 October

01332 59 39 39 www.derbytheatre.co.uk

Malvern Festival Theatre

Monday 29 October – Saturday 3 November

0845 2872146 www.malvern-theatres.co.uk

Norwich Theatre Royal

Monday 5 – Saturday 10 November

01603 630000 www.theatreroyalnorwich.co.uk

Southend Palace Theatre

Monday 12 – Saturday 17 November

01702 351135 www.southendtheatres.org.uk

Windsor Theatre Royal

Monday 19 – Saturday 24 November

01753 853 888 www.theatreroyalwindsor.co.uk

Darlington Civic Theatre

Tuesday 27 November – Saturday 1 December

01325 486555 www.darlington.gov.uk/arts

Theatre Royal Brighton

Tuesday 4 – Saturday 8 December
0844 871 7650 www.atgtickets.com