REVIEW: EVERY GHOST STORY EVER @ BARONS COURT THEATRE

🎭 Every Ghost Story Ever

📍 Barons Court Theatre, 28a Comeragh Road, Barons Court, London, W14 9HR

🗓 Tuesday 27th October 2026

⭐️ 4 Stars

THE PERFECT MIX OF SPOOKY AND ABSURD

Last night I headed down into the atmospheric depths of the Barons Court Theatre. It's been a little while since my last visit to this wonderfully intimate cellar venue, but really, how could I possibly refuse an invitation to a show titled EVERY GHOST STORY EVER this close to Halloween?

I love a good scare as much as the next person, especially when the autumn nights start drawing in. But let me tell you, if you’re heading to this show expecting a deadly serious, hold-your-breath seance, you’re in for a very different kind of treat!

Playing as part of this year's brilliantly spooky GrimFest line-up, Billy Morton’s EVERY GHOST STORY EVER isn't a production that has you jumping out of your seat in terror. Instead, it is a wonderfully chaotic, tongue-in-cheek lecture on the supernatural that is simply too much fun to miss. Rather than calling it false advertising, I'd say it brilliantly blindsides the audience.

Morton storms the stage as Billy Bones - a self-proclaimed connoisseur of the creepy who dresses exactly like your eccentric, ghost-hunting uncle. The whole premise is essentially a whistle-stop tour of horror folklore, dragging us from ancient curses right through to those modern creepypastas that keep you up scrolling on your phone at 2 AM. Bones is on a mission to dissect the ultimate formula for a haunting, and he does it with a relentless barrage of puns that are so bad they are actually glorious.

What makes this show click so beautifully is Morton’s sheer, unadulterated energy. He has a fantastic stage presence and treats the intimate cellar space like his personal paranormal playground. His performance put me in mind of a delicious cross between Tim Curry and Jon Lovitz, while his writing - especially the clever wordplay - felt like a nostalgic nod to greats like Ben Elton and Rik Mayall. It was an absolute joy to see that specific style of comedy writing back on stage again.

The piece balances perfectly on the fine line between genuine spooky tension - delivered via some sharp, atmospheric lighting and sudden sound cues - and absolute, laugh-out-loud absurdity. The audience participation elements are a total hoot. Morton gets everyone involved in mashing up urban legends, and the night I went, the crowd was entirely under his spell. I was personally dragged up on stage to help act out the first ghost story ever written, which involved me finding some bones and having to help bury them!

The show is presented on a thrust stage, and the way Morton took the mickey out of the poor souls who had chosen to sit behind a television screen was highly comedic. It was made even better by one audience member who kept moving to sit against a pillar at the front of the stage, providing brilliant fodder for Morton's sharp wit.

The parody ghost stories weaved throughout the evening were ridiculous and brilliantly bad. His deadpan deconstruction of the genre's tropes - especially a breakdown of M.R. James' rules of horror writing using a flipchart - was genuinely laugh-out-loud funny.

If there's any critique to be made, it's that the academic "lecture" framing means the show occasionally reads a bit like a fast-paced presentation rather than a fully fleshed-out theatrical narrative. But honestly, when a performer is this engaging and the jokes are flying this fast, you barely have time to care about structure.

As someone in their forties, it also crossed my mind that while I completely got all the jokes, puns, and retro references, a younger audience might not be quite as on board. Luckily, last night the majority of the crowd was older than me, so the jokes landed perfectly.

His fast-paced roundup story to end the evening - and to legally justify the name of the show! - was utterly fantastic, and he genuinely left me wanting more. It’s silly, it’s delightfully camp, and it’s a brilliant subversion of the traditional, dusty ghost story.

EVERY GHOST STORY EVER is an absolute gem of a find for the spooky season. There is one final performance at Barons Court Theatre tonight. CLICK HERE to grab a ticket and let Billy Bones school you in the supernatural.

Neill Kovacic-Clarke

All views are my own and I pride myself on being honest, fair and free from influence. Theatre is subjective and it is important to remember that all views expressed are just those of one person.

My ticket for this performance of Every Ghost Story Ever was gifted by Four Presidents, who invited me to watch the show in exchange for my honest review. The fact that my ticket was gifted played no part in the content of my review or the star rating given.

WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY:

Billy Morton

RUNNING TIME (approx):

1 hour, with no interval

CONTENT WARNINGS:

Frequent references to horror themes, ghosts, and the supernatural; Moments of tension

AGE GUIDELINE:

16+

To keep up to date with all the latest theatre news and more, follow Pink Prince Theatre on social media.

Find us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.