Here Comes Your Ghost Again

Esther and Dan’s relationship is haunted by the ghost of a former lover. As the years pass, they settle into a wary equilibrium, treading gingerly through the minefield of their shared past and memories. Words, they both know, can be explosive. But there’s a much, much greater challenge hurtling towards them.

Interview: https://thisweekculture.com/article/callum-murray-here-comes-your-ghost-again/

Programme

What they said

A thought provoking and deeply human experience which prompts reflection on the fragility of the human experience and the connections that remain with us forever.

The raw tones of Joan Baez’s Farewell, Angelina greet the audience as they settle. Baez’s guitar-driven folk tunes are deeply romantic and emotional. Not only does this choice of song set the tone for the play, her song Diamonds and Rust contain the lyrics of the title of the piece and the nostalgic longing therein frames this narrative.

The opening scene finds Dan in a wheelchair, mentally confused and physically constrained. It’s likely he has had a stroke given the loss of functionality in one of his arms, but that is never explicit. Phil Nair-Brown plays this role well. Heavy of limb and heart his frustrations are apparent. Esther (Sam Nixon) fusses around him, awkward, unsure of how to help properly, conflicted emotionally: keen to help whilst self-protective.

Another Joan Baez song begins in order to signal a scene change. Sam leaps up from his wheelchair and both change clothes from a box of props at the back of the stage. This time we are in a bar at the beginning of their romantic relationship and certain markers are placed that become key parts of the developing story.

The structure of the drama continues in the same fashion: short vignettes are played which follow the trajectory of the relationship between the two from the beginning, interrupted by later episodes where Dan is wheelchair-bound, historically moving in reverse. Baez’s tunes prompt the pause each time to allow the pair to redress and reframe the narrative.

Several references are made to “her”: an unknown character, but one that clearly holds Dan’s fascination and as a result Esther’s concern. The deliberate anonymity reinforced by use of a pronoun only is clever and there is a real sense of danger experienced by the audience when we wonder if Dan’s altered mental state will reveal an infidelity with “her” which would potentially cause hurt to Esther. 

The design of this creation, I assume, is to highlight the presence of a former lover, never quite expelled from the memory of one, and too damaging to be fully explored by the other. The unexpected infirmity of one of the parties changes the balance of power between the two and a recollection becomes potentially explosive.

Near the middle of the drama, Esther forces Dan to listen to Baez’s Diamonds and Rust in full. It is achingly moving as the lyrics recall a memory of a lover never to be quite forgotten. Dan then, in a rare moment of clarity, half whispers a truth to Esther. The lights could well go out there to signal the end of the piece but instead the to and fro between years continues.

The audience sits on three sides of the thrust staging, which serves to emphasise the intimate nature of the plot whilst the beauty of Baez’s lyrics and sonorous delivery reinforces the immersion into the pair’s ongoing exchanges. A thought provoking performance, we are reminded of the fragility of the human experience and the connections that remain with us forever.

Everything Theatre, April 2025

Interview

Coming to the Bread & Roses Theatre at the start of April is ‘Here Comes Your Ghost Again’, a play with a rather interesting title that immediately piqued my interest when I heard about it. 

It’s all about the dynamics of a long term relationship, and how hard it can be to maintain honest and open lines of communication. 

It’s the work of former journalist Callum Murray, whose company We To Play is producing the show. I spoke to him to find out more. 

Caro: It’s an intriguing title! Can you tell us a bit about the content of the play? Who is it about and what story does it tell?
Callum: The title is taken from Joan Baez’s song ‘Diamonds And Rust’, which features in the play. The first line of the song is: “Well, I’ll be damned, here comes your ghost again…” 

The song is about Joan unexpectedly receiving a phone call from Bob Dylan, with whom she’d had a relationship ten years previously. 

In the play, Dan, the male character, is unexpectedly unfriended on social media by a former lover, who is also a friend of Esther, the female character. Dan wants to know why. But, Esther wants to know why he wants to know why. 

Words lead them into dangerous, unexplored places and the – unnamed – former lover casts a recurring shadow over their relationship throughout the course of the play, spanning a period of about 25 years.

Caro: What themes are explored through the play?
Callum: The main theme of the play is the difficulty of communicating clearly and honestly: what we choose to conceal and reveal about ourselves, and how these things have changed with the rise of social media as a means of presenting ourselves to the world.

This is further complicated when Dan suffers a life-changing medical event, understood to be a stroke, although this is not specified. 

This means that the existing conversational conventions – the no-go areas, the euphemisms, the tropes they substitute for real meaning – established over many years between him and Esther, no longer apply, making communication between them even more of a minefield.

Caro: What was the inspiration for it? What made you want to write about this topic, these themes?
Callum: ‘Here Comes Your Ghost Again’ began life as a ten minute short entitled ‘Unfriend Me You Fiend’, which debuted in 2024 at several scratch nights in London and Sussex, where We To Play is based. 

Initially, the aim was to explore what happens when Dan is unexpectedly unfriended by the former lover, and how and why the former lover might choose to do this instead of taking the less nuclear option of unfollowing Dan.

I quickly realised that there was a lot more mileage in the relationship between Dan and Esther and extended the short to three scenes, running to about half an hour. 

I then saw the opportunity to introduce a much darker and more complex theme to the play after a good friend of mine suffered a catastrophic stroke, altering my own relationship with him, during a period of about a year – and counting – when I visited him regularly first in hospital, then in a rehabilitation unit and now in a nursing home.

‘Here Comes Your Ghost Again’ is the result.

Caro: In addition to writing the play, what is your role in the production?
Callum: The play is co-directed by me, but I make no claim to any level of directorial expertise. I have also been fulfilling the role of producer.

Fortunately, my friend Rose Ryan is a highly experienced movement director and intimacy co-ordinator in theatre, TV and film, and has contributed enormously to the artistic development of the piece since its inception. 

We have also been lucky enough to benefit from advice from Bob Tomson, the well-known West End theatre and TV director who was responsible with Bill Kenwright for bringing Willy Russell’s ‘Blood Brothers’ to the stage.

Caro: Can you tell us a bit about the cast and other creative team members?
Callum: Rose is a movement director, intimacy coordinator and educator whose training includes an MA from the Royal Central School Of Speech And Drama and a BA from Bretton Hall / Laban Centre.

Her theatre work includes ‘ The Secret Garden’ at Regents Park; ‘Wuthering Heights’ for China Plate; and ‘Romeo And Juliet’ and ‘Pericles’ for RNT. For We To Play, Rose was co-director of ‘Outlandish!’ and ‘Unfriend Me You Fiend’.

Sam Nixon plays Esther. She’s a drama graduate, and as well as bringing Julie Andrews to life in the five star ‘Practically Perfect’ she has recently performed as Fagin in ‘Oliver Twist’ at Brighton Open Air Theatre, and in several award-winning Brighton and Edinburgh Fringe plays.

For We To Play, Sam has appeared as Flora Macdonald and Donalda Macdonald in ‘Outlandish!’ and as Esther in ‘Unfriend Me You Fiend’.

Phil Nair-Brown, who plays Dan, has performed in many theatre productions as well as on screen, playing leading roles in productions such as ‘Queers’, ‘By Jeeves’, ‘Hedda Gabler’ and ‘Macbeth’.

For We To Play, Phil has appeared as Bonnie Prince Charlie and Samuel Johnson in ‘Outlandish!’ and as Dan in ‘Unfriend Me You Fiend’. 

Caro: Can you now tell us a bit about yourself? You haven’t always worked in this industry, have you? Can you tell us about what you used to do and what made you come back to the theatre?
Callum: After acting in several productions at university and co-writing a play – ‘Murder At Garsington Manor’ – and a revue – ‘The Beyond A Joke Revue’ – I began my career in the theatre as House Manager at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry and Warwick Arts Centre. 

I then switched to journalism for over 30 years, writing about the business of sport for a subscription website. Five years ago, I went freelance, enabling me to begin writing for myself again. ‘Here Comes Your Ghost Again’ is one of five plays which are at various stages of production. 

The others include ‘The Thousand Days’, a satire set in a cycling team at the dawn of the EPO doping scandal; and ‘Outlandish!’, a mischievous, musical subversion of the myth of Bonnie Prince Charlie and Flora Macdonald.

Plus, ‘Rebel Rebel’, a musical comedy tracing the parallel tales of two rebellions; and ‘Chelsea Girls’, a musical set in New York’s Chelsea Hotel in 1966, with Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Joan Baez and Judy Collins as the main characters, and featuring the songs of all four.

Caro: How does writing for the theatre compare to other kinds of writing?
Callum: To me, it’s less different from journalism than might be expected.

Like journalism, it involves thoroughly researching a subject and then finding the most truthful and, at the same time, the most engaging way to convey a narrative – it’s not for nothing that journalists refer to their articles as ‘stories’.

Caro: What have been the highlights of your work in the arts, thus far?
Callum: The highlight has been bringing the – comically subverted – story of Bonnie Prince Charlie and Flora Macdonald to an unsuspecting audience in southern England.

However, I fully expect that highlight to be surpassed by ‘Here Comes Your Ghost Again’ at the Bread & Roses Theatre!

Caro: What aims and ambitions do you have for yourself and your company?
Callum: To increase the reach of my plays with more productions, including at festivals, and to keep on writing more and – even – better plays!

Caro: What’s coming up next for you after this?
Callum: We expect to perform the first two scenes of ‘Rebel Rebel’ at The Script’s The Thing festival in Dorchester in May.

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