Westminster Business School academic Philip Holden directs Ghost Light for Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2024

Ghost Light is a ghost story set in Victorian London which tells the story of Henry Webster, an aspiring writer and long-time fan of Charles Dickens, who joins the infamous Ghost Club of which Dickens was a member. On meeting Edward Price, a retired theatrical, Henry is persuaded into taking lodgings in a house that hides many secrets. Owned by a widow, Mia Sands, the house is haunted by her children and husband who seek terrible revenge.

The show's title refers to the light traditionally left on stage when a theatre is empty. Though it serves as a safety device, it is also supposed to ward off evil spirits and act as a guiding light for friendlier spirits. In Ghost Light, the entire show is lit only by handheld Victorian lanterns, evoking the tradition of telling ghost stories in the dark. Apart from leading a course in the School of Management & Marketing, Holden is a writer and has also worked on various theatre projects in his native Kent and London. With Orange Works, a theatre company he co-founded, he directed From Today Everything Changes, Trans Pennine, Being Frank and Locusts at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and with the Oast Theatre in Tonbridge, he has acted in and directed plays including Three Men in a Boat, Charlie's Aunt and You Stupid Darkness.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, Holden also launched the Viral Theatre Festival producing and promoting online theatre and he owns an online bookshop called Mr Books. Two of his own books were published by Bloomsbury and he has a collection of short stories and poems available entitled Light Reading and Dark Tales.

Orange Works is a new writing theatre company based in Kent who have performed at the Edinburgh Fringe over the last seven years (missing the years of the pandemic), with new plays exploring LGBTQ issues, including conversion therapy, coming out in later life, dealing with the gender transition of a family member and with men's mental health.  

Locusts, a new play in 2013, continues to be performed. It was performed in Madrid at the end of 2013 and will be seen in Leeds this October, whilst Ghost Light will shortly be at the Faversham Festival and various other venues around the Southeast and London. It also received an invitation to the Brighton Horror Festival and theatres in Manchester and Avignon. Since the show was performed, Ghost Light has received many four and five star reviews from audience members and professional media outlets.  

The British Theatre Guide said: “Ghost Light is a very well-crafted piece of modern writing harking back to an older era.”

Starbust Magazine added: “It’s an intimate tale told in the dark for the amusement of us all. Coupled with the show’s healthy reminder of our own mortality, it makes for a great little scare in the evening.”

Holden said: “I've been involved in theatre all my life. Both my parents and my grandmother were in amateur theatre all their lives and I first went to the Fringe in 1981 in a show with the comedian and impressionist Rory Bremner.”

The theatre continues to run in the family as Holden’s son, Jack Holden, has acted with the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre, in the West End, on film and TV, and was nominated for an Olivier Award for his own play, Cruise.  

Holden added: “But he is considerably more talented than I am and works harder!”  

Ghost Light can be seen at the Arden Theatre in Faversham on 27 October and at the Oast Theatre in Tonbridge on 31 October and between 1-2 November.  

Find out more about the Westminster Business School.

Westminster students interested in acting can learn about the Acting Society at the University of Westminster's Students' Union.