Andy Nyman, left, and Jeremy Dyson in rehearsal for their world premiere of The Psychic at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Manuel Harlan
IT began with a chance conversation at a University of York honorary degree ceremony in 2024.
York Theatre Royal chief executive Paul Crewes found himself next to actor, writer and comedy talent Steve Pemberton, who was in York with The League Of Gentlemen and Inside No. 9 collaborator Reece Shearsmith to be honoured with doctorates by the department of theatre, film and television.
Crewes, who had taken up his post in October 2023, said he was seeking new work for the Theatre Royal: the perfect opportunity for Pemberton to reveal that League Of Gentlemen cohort Jeremy Dyson and regular writing partner Andy Nyman were working on a new play and looking for a theatre to stage the premiere.
“Finding creative partners is the secret to doing good work,” says Jeremy, seated in the Theatre Royal foyer alongside Andy in a break from co-directing rehearsals for their twisted dark thriller The Psychic, whose world premiere will open with previews from April 29.
“It was a moment of fate that Steve happened to be sitting next to Paul. To Paul’s credit, he contacted me straightaway and we arranged to meet in Leeds the next day as I live in Ilkley. We met at Paranormal Activity, which was having its premiere at Leeds Playhouse.”
Crewes read the script, loved it, and a new partnership was born in a city that has become a creative haven for Dyson and Nyman.
“I’m fascinated by [Carl] Jung’s Synchronicity, his concept of ‘meaningful coincidences’,” says Jeremy. “Anyone who does creative work knows it’s a phenomenon different from serendipity. It’s more mystical than that, like how me and Andy had taken to coming to York when we had creative problems, first when we were working on our novel The Warlock Effect [a Cold War spy thriller] that came out in 2023.
“We were a couple of years on from Covid, we both had lots on, and we thought, ‘let’s get away’. As Andy lives in London, I’m in Ilkley, we said, ‘let’s come to York’. I loved coming to York on day trips, growing up in Yorkshire; but Andy had never been.”
They stayed at The Principal York, now The Milner, for two or three days and did so again when working on one of the drafts for The Psychic. “York has taken on this special meaning for us, and when we were looking for somewhere to stage The Psychic, somewhere outside of London that ‘got’ it, York Theatre Royal was that place,” says Jeremy.
“It meant so much to us as York has become our problem-saving place, and it’s worth saying that Paul and his team have been fantastic, being so supportive and so enabling, and their ambition for the show is even greater than ours.”
Andy adds: “We also believe, as we did with Ghost Stories, starting that show at Liverpool Playhouse and the Lyric Hammersmith and going around the world for 16 years now, that we want to pay back those theatres.
“We deeply believe in subsidised theatre, how important it is for the city. Theatres are not for ‘posh people’’; they’re essential for all, and we love producing something new that can help put coffers back in the community.”
As Andy notes, York is a city “drenched in the supernatural”, making the Theatre Royal the perfect location for The Psychic, wherein TV psychic Sheila Gold loses a high-profile court case, branding her a charlatan.
It costs her not only her reputation, but a fortune in legal fees. When a wealthy couple ask Sheila to conduct a séance to attempt to make contact with their late child, Sheila senses an opportunity to bleed them for money. What follows makes her question everything she ever believed and leads her on a journey into the darkest corners of her life.
“One of the fascinating things about ghost stories, and spirituality in general, is that it exists, whether you believe it or not, in whatever form,” says Andy.
“So our play is exploring the questions without giving definitive answers, but looking at it from all sides,” says Jeremy.
“Pilate asked Jesus this question 2,000 years ago: What is truth? It’s a perennial question, and here we are 2,000 years later with Trump in power. In this play we are asking the deeper question about what really matters in life – and ghost stories are a very helpful lens to look at that because they give you a bridge to eternity as there are ultimate truths around mortality.”
Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman’s The Psychic runs at York Theatre Royal from April 29 to May 23. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Copyright of The Press, York
