The Ghost Theatre
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Buy Now for £12.99
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Narrated by:
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Ellie Kendrick
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By:
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Mat Osman
About this listen
Bloomsbury presents The Ghost Theatre by Mat Osman, read by Ellie Kendrick.
** NOW WITH BONUS MATERIAL EXCLUSIVE TO THIS EDITION **
BOOK OF THE YEAR – EVENING STANDARD, THE OBSERVER and THE TIMES
‘Fiction that's larger than life and twice as much fun’ Guardian
'Rich and evocating; the kind of story you get lost in' Independent
'Osman brings the underworld of Elizabethan London to life' Sandra Newman, author of Julia
On a rooftop in Elizabethan London two worlds collide. Shay is a messenger-girl and trainer of hawks who sees the future in the patterns of birds. Nonesuch is the dark star of the city's fabled child theatre scene, as famous as royalty yet lowly as a beggar.
Together they create The Ghost Theatre: a troupe staging magical plays in London's hidden corners. As their hallucinatory performances incite rebellion among the city's outcasts, the pair's relationship sparks and burns against a backdrop of the plague and a London in flames. Their growing fame sweeps them up into the black web of the Elizabethan court, where Shay and Nonesuch discover that if they fly too high, a fall is sure to come…
Fantastical and captivating, The Ghost Theatre charts the rise and dramatic destruction of a dream born from love and torn apart by betrayal.
'Wildly inventive and full of fantastical elements jostling alongside gritty realism’ The Times
'Rich and evocative with shades of Angela Carter' Ever Dundas
'A story of rebellion and magic, of mysticism and broken love in the streets and theatres and rooftops of Elizabethan London. Beautifully written, delicate and sad. I'm still haunted by it' Mariana Enriquez
Absolutely captivating
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Compelling listening!
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I’ve just finished The Ghost Theatre in a breathless, nail-biting rush, but already the fantastic settings and situations are crowding round shouting to tell me that each of them was my favourite! I can smell the stuffy crows nest of the rotting ship where creepers and vines climb the rigging, I can hear the glass grinding under my feet as I’m stalked through a mirrored maze, I can see the shining black eye of a bird of prey who is hovering protectively over my head.
A rooftop London landscape of scaffolding, weathervanes and glass palaces, the sweaty, dark dormitories of the theatre boys, and the cock-fighting and bear-baiting pits groaning with the pain and violence of Elizabethan sports, are all described with redolent intensity while the story of dangerous, creative extrovert Nonesuch and Shay, whose quiet mysticism is an anchor for the narrative, keeps you hooked throughout. I listened well past my bedtime!
The reading was excellent- a nuanced and measured performance which allowed the beauty of the language to emerge. Shay’s thoughts and feelings were central, and these were conveyed with a clean simplicity which gave them real power. Nonesuch was handled with a deft colouring of his lines which was always text-led and the pace of the reading was just right. I was so sad when the book finished, I loved listening to the timbre of Eliza Kendrick’s voice.
No worries. I’ll just listen again!
A spellbinding tumble through Elizabethan London
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Ethereal and gritty- Elizabethan underground characters at their finest.
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Immersive world
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