Award-winning writer Rosa Torr is one of four playwrights behind Even More… Ghost Stories by Candlelight, a chilling new production touring the UK this autumn. Presented by HighTide and Pentabus, the show features four contemporary ghost stories set in flickering candlelight, reimagining the genre for modern audiences.
Rosa’s story joins those by Florence Espeut-Nickless, Simon Longman, and Anne Odeke, brought to life by a stellar cast and creative team led by BAFTA-winning director Elle While. The production promises intrigue, emotion, and a haunting twist.
Even More… Ghost Stories by Candlelight runs at Battersea Arts Centre from 4–8 November 2025. Tickets are available here.
Your story will feature in Even More… Ghost Stories by Candlelight on tour and at Battersea Arts Centre – what can you tell us about the show?
The show comprises four contemporary ghost stories that are interlinked by a ghostly motif (I won’t give away). You meet four unique characters, all connected by one thing – hauntings. Pentabus and HighTide commissioned writers from their respective regions, so the stories move between the East and West of the country.
Lu Herbert’s set is an amalgam of all four worlds, the perfect twilight zone. It makes me jump, and I know what’s coming.
Your story is one of four featured in this year’s production. What inspired your ghost story and how did you approach writing it?
Ghost stories are all about setting and character. My story is set in a self-storage lock-up in King’s Lynn where we meet Alex, a teenager working as an employee, who has just had her first nightshift. Those sites are totally fascinating to me – getting lost in the maze-like corridors, the gentle hum of the air conditioning, the anonymity of each lot, the curiosity of what lies behind each door.
I work with young people in Lynn who are at risk of unemployment. I think they’re some of the best creatives I’ve worked with – curious, engaged, funny, brash, bright, brutally honest (‘your hair doesn’t suit you’), streetwise, inventive. But in my position at work, I can often see the barriers preventing their progression, how untrusted and undervalued they are at college or by potential employers.
I wanted to show a character like this on stage, in all her glory and flaws, because I’m passionate that these voices are represented on stage.
How does it feel to be part of a production that reimagines ghost stories for the 21st century?
It feels cool. Ghost stories are so often associated with spooky Victoriana and creaky old manor houses, but it’s more exciting to me to explore where and how the dead show up now.
Ghost stories are a way of us sharing our fears and questions about death and grief – what happens if we have unfinished business when we die? Where do we go? What if we become stuck? These questions continue to hover above us, and are as relevant now as they were when MR James was writing, and the Tudors writing stories before him, and the cavemen telling ghost stories before them. Ghost stories are a part of us.
The show tours across both the East and West of England before arriving in London. How do you think audiences will respond to the stories in different regions?
I have seen it in a couple of places now and something that’s always great is that people love to hear particular local towns shouted out. As these stories are so grounded in the part of England they’re from, you can hear audiences responding.
I wasn’t there but I heard Bristol was a particularly lively crowd. The actors Keaton and Sarita have a huge task of representing four distinct places in their accents and they absolutely smash it! People have told me they felt like they watched four different actors afterwards.
What has it been like working with Elle While and the rest of the creative team on this production?
Elle is a genius. From my very first draft, which was messy as all first drafts can be – three times too long and packed with too many ideas – working with Elle, Titi Dawudu and Clare Slater as dramaturgs was like having an A-team assembled behind me. I feel very lucky.
The rehearsal room was such a hive of creative explosion. Each day I went in, the vibes were incredible, the set had gotten bigger and the sound was even more intense.
Co-writing the show with Anne Odeke, Simon Longman and Florence Espeut-Nickless was a lot of fun. They are beyond brilliant writers. There are some crossovers between each script that make for satisfying links that happened totally organically. I’m really grateful to have worked with them.
What would you say to anyone thinking of booking to see Even More… Ghost Stories by Candlelight?
It’s the season – come along and get spooky.
