Steve Pratt talks to Nobby Dimon, of North Country Theatre, about taking the almost forgotten horror stories of J S Fletcher out on tour

HALIFAX-born J S Fletcher wrote more than 100 novels – mostly detective stories and thrillers – but, today, this former Yorkshire Post journalist of the 1920s and 1930s is largely forgotten.

But Nobby Dimon, creative force behind Richmondbased North Country Theatre, knew he’d found the basis for the company’s latest show when he came across one of Fletcher’s short stories in a volume, 100 Best Horror Stories, in a second-hand shop.

“Some of the stories were by famous names and some by less well-known ones. I always like these sort of stories, they’re so grim and melodramatic. You can’t help smiling at them at the same time you’re going, ‘oh my God, that’s terrible’,” he says.

“Fletcher was an incredibly prolific writer. He must have been at it all the time. He wrote compendiums like My Travels In The North Of England. He’s largely forgotten now. He was a rival, I suppose, of Agatha Christie, but never quite got on in England, although sold a lot in America.

“People might call it pulp fiction. You can find one or two of his books on the internet now.”

For Dimon, the story fitted the bill for North Country Theatre with its accent on genre spoofs like The Thirty- Nine Steps and A Blood Wedding In Wensleydale. Now comes The Lighthouse On Shivering Sands, which premieres at Harrogate Theatre this week before embarking on a tour of the region until December.

“I like to take something with a distinct style and try to make a dramatic story – because to me they’re cracking good stories – and give it a little bit of a tonguein- cheek twist,” he explains.

“We’re trying to find a line between trying to spook the audience and also want them to find it funny.”

The story concerns three men who end up in a lighthouse. The two assistant keepers have a back history that causes them to hate each other and one is determined to kill the other before the supply boat returns. The lighthouse keeper is equally determined to keep them apart. “For me, there was a critical question in the story. The lighthouse keeper says to one of the assistant keepers, ‘if what you say is true, he deserves to die’. It’s about how we judge each other’s stories. That struck me as an interesting twist. We’ve tried to lead the audience down some paths so they’re not sure who did what to whom.”

So what has a mermaid got to do with it? Fletcher’s story doesn’t feature such a creature, Dimon’s version does. He began to think how women might be represented and decided on a half-woman, half-fish mythical creature called a selkie.

The lighthouse is located on an indeterminate North Yorkshire coastline. No real lighthouse anywhere in England fits the bill, so Dimon has located it “somewhere between Hartlepool and Hull”.

The tour is one of the longest NCT has ever undertaken, partly because of its financial situation after losing regular Arts Council funding. So 65 performances in ten weeks of non-stop touring are being undertaken to ensure maximum return on the production outlay.

The company has a small project Arts Council grant for this production, but two-thirds of the costs come from money raised from the Angels of the North Country, people and small businesses in the communities served by NCT.

NCT shows also open at Harrogate Theatre now, the biggest venue. “It means we have the technical resources of the theatrical venue to support us before it opens. It also means we reach a different audience. We felt we are expanding our audience and we launch the tour with a bit of a bang.”

Next, NCT will stage a big community play, a production of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt in collaboration with a Norwegian twin town partner to be performed in the open-air next summer.

  • The Lighthouse On Shivering Sands: Harrogate Theatre, Box Office: 01423-502116 and harrogatetheatre.co.uk Richmond Georgian Theatre Royal, Oct 2-3. 01748- 825252 and georgiantheatreroyal.co.uk For tour information visit northcountrytheatre.com