A play to chill you to the marrow on a midsummer’s night. That was playwright Philip Meeks’ aim, as he explains to DAVID WHETSTONE

THERE are all sorts of thrills to be had in a theatre but playwright Philip Meeks knew the kind he wanted to serve up to audiences.

He wanted to thrill and chill at the same time, and maybe induce people to jump out of their comfy seats.

“There’s a big appetite for the supernatural at the moment and I’ve had quite a few ghost stories published so I thought it would be a good idea to write a play,” says the South Shields-born writer who now lives in Leeds.

The Woman in Black, a stage adaptation of Susan Hill’s best-selling novel, has been delivering scary moments for many years and seems to have lost none of its power.

In London, the play Ghost Stories, by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman, built up a reputation for scaring people witless – and came with a post-performance plea not to give the game away to potential ticket buyers.

There was another motivation for writing I Met A Man Who Wasn’t There, which comes to Darlington next week.

“I like the idea of writing in different genres,” says Philip.

“I’m developing a farce at the moment. I like this idea of writing something with a specific generic edge to it.”

In the North East Philip is known for having written several of the pantomimes staged annually by the People’s Theatre in Newcastle.

He also contributed to the People’s centenary new writing project, Past Glories, with a short comedy called Keeping Up With The Joans, of which we probably haven’t seen the last.

His play Twinkle Little Star, originally written for Tim Healy, has just finished a tour and – with his actor’s hat on – he is looking forward to playing the Dame in Snow White in Middlesbrough this Christmas.

But back to the play with the scary nursery rhyme title.

Billed as “a spine-chilling ghost story full of twists, turns and comedy moments”, it features Brian Capron (who was Richard Hillman in Coronation Street) as Edgar Rhyme, a medium who suddenly disappeared from public view when his wife died.