HIGHTIDE AND PENTABUS ANNOUNCE CAST FOR
EVEN MORE… GHOST STORIES BY CANDLELIGHT
HighTide and Pentabus today announce the cast for the upcoming tour of Even More… Ghost Stories by Candlelight, which will travel across the East of England, and for the first time, the West of England, before a London run at Battersea Arts Centre. Elle While the BAFTA winning Artistic Director of Pentabus, will direct Ben Castle-Gibb and Sarita Gabony.
Now in its third consecutive year, the show brings together four contemporary ghost stories from Florence Espeut-Nickless, Simon Longman, Anne Odeke and Rosa Torr. This production will complete HighTide’s trilogy of contemporary ghost stories, set amongst flickering candlelight, reimagining the genre for the 21st century.
Director Elle While said today, ‘Growing up in rural Herefordshire, the supernatural was forever around the corner and I’ve always loved the possibilities of stories that question beyond the rational. Getting to know the people and places of these contemporary ghost stories by the immeasurable talents of Anne, Flo, Rosa and Simon has already been a great joy and I can’t wait to delve deeper and hopefully bring about a show filled with intrigue and surprises.’
Joining Elle While to complete the creative team are Lu Herbert (Set and Costume Designer), Anna Short (Sound Designer), Jonathan Chan (Lighting Designer), Thomas Quine (Production Manager), former HighTide Artistic Director Clare Slater (Dramaturg), and Olivier Award winning John Bulleid (Illusion Designer).
The tour begins at Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds on 6 October, with press night at Key Theatre, Peterborough on 11 October. It will then tour to 15 venues before concluding its run at Battersea Arts Centre from 4 – 8 November 2025. The performance at The Seagull, Lowestoft on 15 October will also feature a pre-show rehearsed reading of Libby Ruffles’ Be Still and Know – which won HighTide’s Ghost Story Writing competition.
HighTide Artistic Director Titilola Dawadu said, ‘There’s something so special about coming together to share stories that have themes that will resonate and are deeply moving, and full of heart – all with a haunting twist! Elle has brought together a wonderful cast, and I look forward to seeing Ben and Sarita move, delight and frighten audiences across the country this autumn.”
A HighTide and Pentabus Co-production
in association with Harlow Playhouse
EVEN MORE…GHOST STORIES BY CANDLELIGHT
Written by Florence Espeut-Nickless, Simon Longman, Anne Odeke, and Rosa Torr
Cast: Ben Castle-Gibb and Sarita Gabony
Director: Elle While; Set and Costume Designer: Lu Herbert; Sound Designer: Anna Short;
Lighting Designer: Jonathan Chan; Production Manager: Thomas Quine; Dramaturgy: Clare Slater; Illusion Designer: John Bulleid; Stage Manager: Jodie Jasmin-Hicks
6 October – 8 November 2025
Ghosts don’t always stay in the past.
The sell-out success returns with four brand new spooky stories from award-winning writers. In an ambitious co-production between HighTide and Pentabus, this year’s Ghost Stories by Candlelight will draw you into the secretive corners of the East and West of England. Join us by the candles. Just don’t let the light go out.
Ben Castle-Gibb’s theatre credits include Biscuits for Breakfast (Hampstead Theatre), Frankenstein (UK tour), and & Folk (Frinton Summer Theatre); and for television, Hollyoaks (as semi-series regular Kane) and You.
Sarita Gabony’s theatre credits include Love’s Labour’s Lost (RSC), Our Generation (National Theatre and Chichester Festival Theatre), That Face (Orange Tree Theatre), James IV: Queen of the Fight (National Theatre of Scotland), Deciphering (New Diorama Theatre), The Treatment, Little Revolution (Almeida Theatre), The Divide (The Old Vic), and The Sound of Music (The London Palladium); for Radio, The Family Business and The Nobodies, and for film, Mothering Sunday and Spectrum.
Florence Espeut-Nickless is an award-winning writer and actor from Wiltshire. Her playwriting credits include Little Red & Other Tales (Bristol Old Vic), Bernadette & Other Teenage Folk Tales (Restoke), The Odyssey (National Theatre, Trowbridge Town Hall), DESTINY (Tobacco Factory Theatres and UK tour) and Miracle on 34 Seymour Street (Trowbridge Town Hall) which is currently being adapted for TV. Espeut-Nickless was 2024 Writer in Residence at Bristol Old Vic (as part of the FILM 4/Peggy Ramsay Playwrights Awards) and is currently under commission to Bristol Old Vic, National Theatre Connections, Ardent Theatre and BBC Radio 4. She was CRF Writer in Residence at Pentabus and an associate artist at Strike a Light, as part of the Let Artists Be Artists programme. She took part in the BBC Voices scheme and Dancing Ledge’s High End TV writer’s programme.
Simon Longman is a playwright originally from the West Midlands. His work has been produced, performed and translated around the world. His plays include Falling Falling Falling Falling (RWCMD/Young Vic); (Circle Dreams Around) The Terrible, Terrible Past (National Theatre, Connections); Patient Light (Eastern Angles); Island Town (Paines Plough); Gundog (Royal Court); Rails (TBTL); White Sky (RWCMD/Royal Court); Sparks (Old Red Lion) and Milked (Pentabus Theatre Company).
He was awarded the 49th George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright and was also a recipient of the Channel 4 Playwright’s Scheme. He is an Associate Artist at Kestrel Theatre Company, which works within prisons around the UK, teaching and exploring playwriting. His plays are published by Bloomsbury.
Anne Odeke is an actor and emerging playwright. Her playwriting credits include Princess Essex
(Shakespeare’s Globe, in which she also starred – nominated for Best New Play and Best Performer
in a Play at the WhatsOnStage Awards 2025). Anne has also written for Storyhouse Chester,
Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, Almeida Theatre and BBC Radio 4. She has also recently completed a year with the Orange Tree Theatre’s Writer’s Collective.
Director: Elle While; Set and Costume Designer: Lu Herbert; Sound Designer: Anna Short;
