Theatre company brings Victorian era to modern audience

If the likes of Mamma Mia, Les Misérables and Much Ado About Nothing just aren’t your style, Don’t Go Into The Cellar theatre company could be right up your street.

Don’t Go Into The Cellar, created by Midlands duo Jonathan Goodwin and Gary Archer, offers alternative shows popping up in venues all over the UK. The theatre company specialises in creating new adaptations of nineteenth-century literature’s greatest ghost and horror stories to a modern-day audience.

The duo, who head to around five venues to perform each week, set up the company in 2010 after deciding to do something a little different with their careers and bring the Victorian and Edwardian eras to life for those who are looking for diverse shows in venues they may not always consider going to.

Artistic director and actor Jonathan, from Northampton, chose to start working with Birmingham-based Gary after jobs were leaving him uninspired. He said: “Seven years ago, I was an actor and I was getting work, but nothing particularly interesting and I wanted an acting job that I actually enjoyed doing. Around Hallowe’en in 2010, I came up with the idea of Don’t Go Into The Cellar.

“There are always scary shows around Halloween, but not all around the year. I wanted to have a company dedicated exclusively to Edwardian gothic horror.

“No one else does what we do, there are a few around Hallowe’en but we are the only ones who do it all year round and I thought, what would I enjoy watching and would others enjoy it?”

Don’t Go Into The Cellar are now seeing huge success with sold-out shows every week at venues including everything from theatres, National Trust properties, festivals and even underground venues. Jonathan said: “We perform at all sorts of venues, one night we could be in a pub in Wales, the next at a Victorian venue in London, it is always changing.

“We are essentially like a band, we show up and perform, pack up and go home, just without the screaming fans.”

The productions created are often one-man shows, with their biggest show being just four actors. The duo also try and make their shows as authentic as possible, relying on eeriness, sound effects and stage design.

Jonathan said: “We try and make the audiences experience as close to how theatre would have been in the Victorian times. Obviously, we have 21st century sounds and affects, but we love to take the audience away from the current 21st century and take them back in time like the 1880s.”

The most popular shows from the team are Tea with Oscar Wilde, The Singular Exploits of Sherlock Holmes, Frankenstein 1899 and Murder by Gaslight.

Jonathan said: “A lot of our shows are funny, the Oscar Wilde one and Sherlock Holmes in particular are fairly light hearted. All our shows have funny bits in them, but they are more mysterious and weird rather than gory.”

“It is all about bringing the history to life on stage, and so far, the response is brilliant and we get incredible feedback. It is very immersive and like story-telling, which makes it a great thing to do.”

Don’t Go Into The Cellar are bringing Terror on the Tracks to Birmingham’s Coffin Works, Murder by Gaslight to Evesham Arts Centre and The Singular Exploits of Sherlock Holmes to Sandon Hall in Stafford, all in April.