CultureCritic talks to Jeremy Dyson...

CultureCritic recently caught up with playwright, screenwriter and author Jeremy Dyson. Together with Andy Nyman, he wrote Ghost Stories, which began its new run at the Duke of York's Theatre in June following its great success at Lyric Hammersmith. Jeremy discusses his favourite plays, horror in the modern age and tells us what it takes to frighten the living daylights out of an audience...

You have been friends with Andy Nyman since childhood. How did you first meet and how did you come to collaborate on Ghost Stories?

We met at Jewish summer camp in 1981. We were sharing a dormitory and hit it off on our first night, bonding over the dirty jokes in Andy's collection of Rag mags and a shared love of horror movies. From then on we were best friends. Although we lived in different places (me in Leeds, Andy in Leicester), we would get together whenever we could. As for collaborating, we'd been talking about it, on and off, for years. Then, roughly two years ago, Andy rang me and said he'd had this idea for a play involving three men telling ghost stories and asked whether I'd be interested in writing it with him. Naturally, I said yes, but not much more happened until January 2009. The catalyst was the brilliant theatre director Sean Holmes getting the job of artistic director at the Lyric Hammersmith. He was a great friend of Andy's, having directed him in Moonlight and Magnolias at The Tricycle, and very much wanted to work with him again. He knew about Andy's ghost play idea and asked what was happening with it. Very quickly Andy and I went in to meet him and he not only commissioned it on the spot but programmed it too, because he knew it was the only way it would happen given how busy Andy and I tend to be individually.

What challenges did writing for theatre present you with? Did working on The League of Gentlemen's A Local Show for Local People back in 2001 provide you with valuable experience?

I love live events, so the challenges - such as what can you realistically achieve on stage and are you able to actually scare an audience in a theatre - felt like positives to me. Over and above these, Andy was very keen on making sure that what we wrote was going to be commercially viable. That meant a small cast and doing what we could to ensure that the show would be tourable and not ridiculously expensive. Naturally, my League experience fed into what we wrote - not just from the two tours that we did but all the early work we did in fringe theatres. The League was born on stage and we did long runs at the Canal Café Theatre in 1996 and 1997, where we created lots of different characters and situations with an absolutely minimal set. I had a feel for the world of stage, and to be honest it was a delight to be back in that world which is, creatively, a very pure one.

How important is the audience's reaction to Ghost Stories to you as its creator?

It is absolutely everything. We were constantly thinking of the audience reaction as we were writing, and relishing the potential responses at various points in the plotting. I'm very big on audience regardless of which medium I'm working in. It's [about] entertainment with a capital E and never, ever being boring.

Ghost Stories is set in the modern day. Do you think it's getting harder to write truly frightening stories in an age when people are typically online and everything is demystified so quickly?

I think the things that are frightening will remain frightening as long as we haven't conquered death. Ultimately, that's what all horror stuff is plugging into in a very visceral way, and it is hardwired into us biologically. I think the ghost story is a more demanding form than, say, a slasher tale, because its mechanisms are more delicate and require a particular set of sensitivities in the writer. But I think it's just as possible to write a good ghost story now as it was in M.R. James's day, and there are many, many terrific writers and filmmakers out there proving it. Naturally, the milieu and details change, but the underpinning tropes remain the same.

Comedy and horror are two qualities that can be quite tricky to strike an effective balance between. What's the secret?

If there is a secret it's simply having a particular sensibility and set of tastes. In the same way that you need funny bones to be a comedian or comic writer, you need scary bones to be able to do scary stuff. Interestingly, there is a big crossover between the two and there are many gifted practitioners of comedy who have a love of ghost and horror stuff. Rhythmically, getting a laugh and getting a scream are very similar, and in the same way that comedy is either funny or it isn't, horror is either scary or it isn't. There's no middle ground.

What film, book or story gave you sleepless nights as a child?

The first one I can remember was a particular Babar the Elephant book whose name escapes me. But Babar went to the island of the monkeys and there was a sea-witch on it. It was terrifying and I wouldn't have it anywhere near the bed at night.

Are there any places you've visited that have especially spooked you?

Indeed, yes. I think locations can stir very strong emotions. When I was between the ages of nine and 17, we lived in house on the edge of Leeds, down an isolated cart track halfway between the road and a disused farm. Opposite the house was a huge dark woods that used to scare the shit out of me. I once went exploring with my brother and we came across a great big stagnant lake among the trees. I experienced such a sense of evil and malignancy that I had to turn and flee, my heart racing. I put this location in my story Michael, which appears in my latest collection, The Cranes that Build the Cranes.

Which playwrights­, living or dead,­ do you hold in high esteem or look to for inspiration?

It's more plays and specific productions than particular playwrights: Glengarry Glen Ross, Matthew Warchus's Death of a Salesman and Stephen Daldry's production of An Inspector Calls all made big impressions. And odd things that stick in my mind [such as] Rat in the Skull and Fuenteovejuna, which was on at the National Theatre years ago.

What are you working on next?

Lots of exciting projects. I'm currently producing a TV pilot for Count Arthur Strong - a character I absolutely adore. I've got a new theatre project lined up, which is under wraps at the moment, and I'm writing two film scripts - one about Hitchcock and the other... a ghost story.

Ghost Stories is on at the Duke of York's Theatre, St Martin's Lane, London until November 7. To book visit www.ghoststoriestheshow.co.uk. To read more about Ghost Stories, click here.