Vienna's English theatre 2020
Spooked!
Going 2 B performed on May 25th, 2020
Oscar Wilde's famous ghost of Canterville has to assert itself in this new adaptation in our present - given the console games and smartphones, as well as the unswerving disrespect of the teenagers not an easy game - not even for authentic spirits!
Lord Canterville, impoverished heir to an impressive but dilapidated property, is forced to sell to the American real estate company Otis Property Group. He assumes that the Otis family would now move into the seat of his ancestors, but that turns out to be a fatal error after their arrival. The tough businesswoman Lucretia Otis plans to tear down the dilapidated castle and build a modern eco-housing estate on the site.
While her son Washington takes little notice of his surroundings because he is too caught up in various computer games, her sensitive daughter Virginia is saddened by the prospect. Before Lord Canterville leaves the new owners to his own devices, he admits that the castle is haunted. His ancestor, Sir Simon de Canterville, had murdered his wife here, as can be seen from a bloodstain that cannot be erased to this day, and every night his unsaved soul is up to mischief in the old walls. However, the Americans are unexpectedly calm about this revelation.
When Sir Simon actually appears to Washington at night, the experienced specter has the greatest difficulty in getting his attention. The computer game and horror film junkie remains rather unimpressed and considers Sir Simon a somewhat poor hologram. When Sir Simon's ghost can finally convince him of his paranormal existence, Washington is enthusiastic and suggests scaring Virginia, who finally showed the greatest interest in the haunted story.
Again, an unexpected friendship quickly develops between Virginia and Sir Simon, and tired of being haunted, the ghost tells her of the Canterville riddle that could help him to be saved. Virginia does not have much time to solve this, because her mother wants to start demolishing the walls as soon as possible in order to anticipate possible resistance from the local council. Virginia feverishly gets to work with the help of Washington ...