· Actors
The people in the dark
Fourteen actors on a Saturday, most of them with a theatre degree and a very good pair of soft shoes. What it takes to frighten people for a living, gently.
On a Saturday night fourteen actors work the cellars in shifts of two hours. Most trained in theatre. All of them trained here for three weeks before their first night.
Stillness is the hardest part
Anyone can jump out of a doorway. The skill is standing in the corner of The Lodger for twenty minutes without moving, so that the third group of the night still isn’t sure you’re a person.
Reading the room
Actors watch every visitor the way a good waiter watches a table. Somebody laughing too loudly gets a little more. Somebody going quiet gets space. The rule is simple: frighten the story, never the person.
Soft shoes, warm coats
Eleven degrees is cold if you stand still for two hours. The coats in the photos are real costumes, and they all have a hot-water bottle sewn into the lining.