Spirited Storytelling: ‘Creeping Murmur; Poring Dark’
A peculiar parlour game, a sauce salesman, a ghost ship, and a little girl behind a door. In Creeping Murmur; Poring Dark, John D. Huston transforms an unassuming hotel conference room into a site of spectral thrills. Though breakfast had barely settled in my stomach by the time I took my seat, I was immediately transported to a late-night world of chilling tales by Huston’s wry, lively storytelling.
Huston presents four stories from 1890-1930, the golden age of the ghost story. These stories are suspenseful but not too scary, and Huston has adapted them for the stage with uncanny deftness. Huston handles a variety of voices and accents with ease, and his expressive speech and measured physicality immediately assure the audience that they’re in the presence of a professional.
Huston’s voice becomes eerily soft in moments of suspense, forcing listeners to lean in closely to hear what happens next. This is a highly effective way of holding the audience’s attention, but at times it made it difficult to decipher his words. While it was the perfect amount of creeping, there was just a little too much murmur.
Following the sequence of the stories takes dedicated focus—if listeners let their minds wander for more than a moment, they may find themselves lost in the dark. Huston jumps between tales more rapidly as the hour progresses, culminating in a climactic four-part fright.
While cycling between stories allows Huston to build suspense slowly—in the beginning, I almost forgot I was listening to ghost stories—the finale ends up feeling a bit crowded. I found myself wanting more time to savour each deadly denouement before moving on to the next. Be that as it may, I left Creeping Murmur; Poring Dark sufficiently chilled for a Monday afternoon.
‘Creeping Murmur; Poring Dark’ is playing at the Confederation Place Hotel in the TK Fringe Festival until August 13th, 2023. Find more information and tickets here.
This article was edited on December 1st, 2023 to update formatting.