Anomaly: A 1940's Romantic Comedy Wakes a Family Ghost

In 2014 I wrote and directed a play based in 1943 at a 100 year old , and unwittingly wrote an almost identical tale... to a true love story that happened on that very spot 73 years earlier. 

I had the privilege of having some of the personal artifacts from this family on display in the foyer. 

During the run up to the show - we had a number of strange things occur on and off stage. During rehearsals we had a simple sound system set-up and radio mics, we would switch everything off, including switching the sound system off, and we would hear almost 'restaurant conversations' no clear words, but chatting laughing and socialising sounds predominantly of a male voice - coming through the system! 

On our one prop - a desk - we had our script stuck down with prestik (an A4 page meant to jog our memory during scenes) We walked on stage to perform our scene and the script that was there a moment before was gone. The other two actors (the only other people there) were sitting on the far side of the stage in their 'scene' waiting to act. We stopped and asked them, they didn't know what we were talking about. There weren't even prestik marks on the table! We started the scene again and all walked forward to the front of the stage to act... when we turned - the page was stuck back on the desk in the same place as before. 

The gentleman in question had met the love of his life during the war, married her 68 years ago, and he had died at the age of 74, his wife never remarried. On the 7th of February this year his dearly departed wife would have been 90 years old and on the 11th February he would have been 100 years old! 

Two of their daughters, C and E, were able to attend the show which was amazing, On the night that the daughter C who supplied the artifacts attended she was sitting in the audience and the man next to her kept shifting uncomfortably in his chair, he eventually apologised to C and said that he was moving as his chair was 'broken' (we have never had another complaint about that chair) Very shortly afterwards her husband started shifting and said the same, moving one chair away. C thought it was a little odd but within minutes she felt two distinct spirits arrive at her side, her Mom and her Dad. She says that they sat on either side of her and spent the show with her. 

On that same night I was backstage alone preparing to go on when I suddenly saw what I thought was one of my actors - walking out of the change room towards me, he stopped and fixed his brown army hat, checked his buttons on his army jacket and then walked THROUGH the curtains on the audience side - I opened my mouth to ask what was going on but realised in those few seconds that it couldn’t have been my actors – they were only in army dress from half way – that I could hear them on stage – and that the man in question had been shorter and slimmer. Oh, and the change room door was shut. It was at this time that C felt her Dad sitting next to her.

It has been almost a year since the event, and I was chatting with C this morning, I suddenly asked her if she had taken any photographs at the theatre and she said “No.” so I said “in the foyer?” and the answer was “yes” – I felt really strongly that I should ask her to look at those photos – and I’m glad she did! She sent me the two photos and asked me to see if I could see what she saw… she didn’t tell me what.

In the first photograph you’ll see the tank with the artifacts inside. 

In the top left corner you can clearly see a man looking out – the ear, jaw line and mouth are the same as C’s father in the photos.

In the second photo you see C’s sister E (blurred) and behind her in the glass window you see hand prints – but behind the hand prints we see their Dad again – with his distinctive nose – the same shape as C and E’s noses, he seems to have an army hat on as well. 

You can see his distinctive high cheekbones and nose as he looks down to the left. the hand prints are from the glass but you can see the image is 'behind' them, I love the shoulders of his jacket.

  

What an amazing story of contact from beyond!