Every Ghost Story Ever – GrimFest / Barons Court Theatre, London

Billy Bones breaks all the conventions to fit Every Ghost Story Ever into a convenient hour-long show.

Every Ghost Story Ever

Billy Bones (Billy Morton) starts the show by managing our expectations. It’s not really going to be every ghost story ever. We’d be here all night! But what this show is is quite an effective dissection of the commonalities between tales of the supernatural, and what is and isn’t important to make a good ghost story. MR James’ rules for ghost stories? Straight out the window. And I would have argued James’ spine-tingling tales have stood the test of time! But I think the takeaway from Bones’ pseudo-lecture on the genre is that it isn’t about hard and fast rules. It’s about a well-crafted story that makes the hair on our necks stand on end, probably with a slightly familiar formula so we can anticipate the thrills and chills.

To prove this point, Bones recounts the first recorded ghost story, the haunting of Athenodorus as immortalised by Pliny the Younger. It’s remarkable how familiar the elements are. The house that seems too good a bargain to be true. A lonely evening vigil. An apparition. The impossible knowledge the ghost imparts. Not much has changed over the millennia, it seems.

So as I mentioned, the structure of this work of theatre is a pseudo-lecture. I typically quite like this framing. It’s good for exposition, and puts the audience in a fairly active role. See here or here for other examples. What I think this pseudo-lecture maybe needed a little more of was back story. We meet Billy Bones, we eventually learn about his ex wife and his car troubles. But what is his authority to be telling us about ghost stories, other than the fact that he created a show and we came? I think maybe a pseudo-credential or pseudo-academic setting to go along with the pseudo-lecture would help to ground it.

A Ghostly Parade of Punchlines

What we do have, in Every Ghost Story Ever, is a fairly effective formula for stand-up. The character of Billy Bones is deliciously over the top in a Vincent Price-esque way, with cravat, smoking jacket, and booming confidence. This confidence generates an easy rapport with the audience, as Bones ad-libs, recruits actors, and crowd sources first person ghost stories. He has also come prepared with photographs, an audio clip, and video clips, to back up his well-made points. But I would argue that the thread holding everything together comes in the form of one-liners. Bones is full of them. And like a good Christmas cracker joke, even the groan-worthy ones bring the audience together in a shared experience.

Which, I think, is also the point about ghost stories. We’ve been telling them since our ancestors sat around camp fires long, long ago, scaring each other before bed. We keep reinventing them for each generation. But there’s a consistent core about them, honed over all those years. Maybe then the final reveal is one we should have seen coming!

As far as GrimFest goes, I’ve made some good picks! Both with comedy leanings which, apart from the suspenseful psychological horror of your MR Jameses, is my favourite. How Am I Doing Today has now finished. You’ve only got tonight to see Every Ghost Story Ever on its GrimFest run. But I hope it will pop up elsewhere. It’s fun and different, and should have a long life (and afterlife?) ahead of it.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 3.5/5

Every Ghost Story Ever on at Barons Court Theatre until 28 October 2026 as part of GrimFest, which runs until 31 October. More info and tickets here.

Promotional image by Wenart Gunadi.