Theatre review: The Nag's Head

I guess I don't really have anything Hallowe'en-themed this year if Felix Grainger & Gabriel Fogarty-Graveson's The Nag's Head was meant to fulfil that role: This three-hander about a haunted pub proves more spoofy than spooky. Siblings Sarah (Cara Steele,) Connor (Fogarty-Graveson) and Jack (Grainger) have returned to rural Shireshire for their father's funeral, and to take over the titular failing pub he's left them. On the evening after the wake, as they first bicker then reconnect with family inside jokes, a package gets delivered for them, they assume per their father's wishes: A creepy painting of a naked demon in the woods, which they hang behind the bar. As they search for a USP that'll make customers come back, they chance upon a ghost tour of the area. Between the painting and the various unfortunate smells coming from the neglected building, they decide to relaunch the Nag's Head as the most haunted pub in Britain.

I do of course love a good comedy, and there's a lot of fun moments here - there's some decent gags and the cast take turns playing various other supporting characters (with a range of accents that make the location as vague as the name Shireshire does.)

But the promised evening of ghost stories doesn't really materialise, instead the play turns out to be a metaphor for the homogenisation of independent pubs around the country by large chains: Against her brothers' wishes, Sarah takes a deal from a chain to help relaunch the pub, and the resulting power trip makes her behave suspiciously as if she's been possessed. Meanwhile Connor has met a new girlfriend who's great, apart from the fact that nobody else can see her.

There's some meandering and plot holes (how was their late father single-handedly running the pub from a retirement home?) but the story does come to a fun conclusion (I wouldn't go so far as to call it a twist) and has a lot of entertaining moments. I think I've come away a bit disappointed because very occasionally Alice Chambers' production shows that it could have pursued a more genuine scary story angle - the moment the painting arrives in the middle of a comedy dance is a genuine jump-scare - but opted not to, and it's a shame we don't get that extra dimension we could have had.

The Nag's Head by Felix Grainger & Gabriel Fogarty-Graveson is booking until the 28th of October at Park Theatre 90.

Running time: 2 hours including interval.