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''Things That Go Bump'' is a season of plays (often regarded as a trilogy) performed in 2008 by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. Unlike Ayckbourn's previous trilogies, where all three plays were written for the same season, the three plays in this set were written over a period of fourteen years. The first play, ''Haunting Julia'', was written in 1994, and ''Snake in the Grass'' was written in 2002 as a companion piece. Finally, in 2008, a third play, ''Life and Beth'', was written combining the six actors in the other two plays, and all three plays were performed as a trilogy at the Stephen Joseph Theatre. The plays shared the themes of ghosts, but the stories and characters themselves were unconnected. == Background == ''Further details in background sections on individual Haunting Julia, Snake in the Grass and Life and Beth pages.'' The history of the trilogy began in 1994, when the Stephen Joseph Theatre was still at its old Westwood site. ''Haunting Julia'' was written following inspiration from Stephen Mallatratt's stage adaptation of Susan Hill's ''The Woman in Black'', and premièred at the theatre seven years earlier. His interest came from what he considered Mallatratt's ability to make audiences jump through good acting and tension rather than special effects.〔(Preface ) to ''Plays 3'' by Alan Ayckbourn, Faber & Faber〕 However, ''Haunting Julia'' ended up being dominated by the three living men and their relationship to Julia〔(Programme notes ) from 1999 SJT tour.〕 – a brilliant musician who took her life aged nineteen – rather than the appearances of any ghosts. After a première with mixed success in 1994 and a more successful revival in 1999, now at the theatre's current site, Ayckbourn followed this play up in 2002 with ''Snake in the Grass''. This was partly due to a wish to write a female equivalent of ''Julia'', partly due to the continuing success of ''The Woman in Black'', and partly due to the success that Yasmina Reza's play '''Art''' was enjoying with a small cast.〔Allen, Paul (2004) ''A Pocket Guide to Alan Ayckbourn Plays'' Faber & Faber ISBN 0-571-21492-4〕 Mirroring the original play, ''Snake'' featured three women, and the "ghost" was the father of two of them. However, in keeping with Ayckbourn's tendency to move more contemporary themes, the play was arguably a much darker one, covering themes of sexual abuse and domestic violence. For some time afterwards, Ayckbourn considered writing a third ghost play that would combine the cast of the previous two plays, and eventually decided to do so after Susie Blake (Miriam in the original ''Snake in the Grass'') asked about reprising her role.〔Interview from ''Life and Beth'' programme, held on (Ayckbourn site )〕〔(''Life and Beth'' history on official Ayckbourn site )〕 It was announced in December 2007 that the play would be performed as part of next summer's season, and two months later it was added that Ayckbourn's other two "ghost" plays would also be performed as a trilogy,〔(''Scarborough Evening News'', 19 February 2008 )〕 now known as ''Things That Go Bump''. Although ''Things That Go Bump'' was a name created by the Stephen Joseph Theatre for its 2008 season rather than one created by Alan Ayckbourn, the three plays have since been regarded as a trilogy elsewhere.〔See, for example, (), () and ().〕 Alan Ayckbourn himself did not express any opinions on the existence of ghosts, but he say he once felt the presence of his father's ghost a few years after his death.〔〔(''Haunting Julia'' history ) on official Ayckbourn site〕 Whether this affected the plays is unclear. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Things That Go Bump (plays)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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