For the first live show in almost 30 years at Tenby's Royal Playhouse last week, proceedings seemed shockingly spooked! The stalls of the cinema were full for the Mostly Haunted Spooks Live Show, but the cinema's manager, Stephen Williams, was a little disappointed that things did not run quite as smoothly as he would have liked for the charity show, despite a huge effort from all the staff, Simon from Spooks and Zoe from Radio Pembrokeshire. Mr. Williams took over the Royal Playhouse last year and is trying different things in order to keep the cinema in the town going, raising money for good causes along the way, although at times he admits it is an uphill struggle. So when he was contacted by Simon from Spooks with the suggestion of a charity show, Mr. Williams welcomed the opportunity to have the first live show at the cinema for quite some time. However, the spirits had other ideas! Zoe and Simon worked very hard putting the material together for the show, which was going to be a mixture of video clips on the big screen, broadcast highlights and live guests on stage. But the event seemed dogged with problems leading up to it, with no time for full rehearsals due to ill health and, despite a successful sound check on the day of the show, the event got off to an uncertain spooky start. As Mr. Williams explained: "Just as the show started, a buzz appeared on the speakers which we could not get rid of and one of the main microphones went missing; it just seemed as if there was a 'spirit' playing games with us! "The show started, but due to the re-editing it did not flow as well and after 20 minutes a family left, asking for their money back, plus after the intermission a further 10 per cent of the audience did not return, which was a shame because the second half worked a lot better with the introduction of the mediums and some of the paranormal team," continued Mr. Williams. Although the show didn't go exactly to plan, a lot of money was raised for charity, which made it all worthwhile. To date, since Mr. Williams has been at the cinema, over £2,000 has been raised for local charities. "If there are spirits at the Royal Playhouse, they did not seem to enjoy the show that evening and that could also be said of some of the audience, but most stayed until well past the witching hour and all went away with a feeling of, Is there anybody out there?" added Mr. Williams, who thanked all involved with the show for their efforts. Anyone with any ideas for other live entertainment at the Royal Playhouse can contact Mr. Williams at the cinema on 01834 844809 or e-mail him at [email protected]">[email protected]
