A WOLLASTON actor and playwright hope to have audiences jumping out of their seats as he stages his first full-length play ahead of Halloween.

Alan Birch, of Weeping Bank Productions, is set to present The Haunting of Gibside Manor at Katie Fitzgerald’s, Stourbridge, on Wednesday October 19 and Thursday October 20, and at Quatt Village Hall, near Bridgnorth, on Saturday October 29.

Shows start at 8pm and tickets are available online from weepingbankproductions.co.uk.

Alan said: “This play is inspired by personal experiences. It’s the first time I’ve actually written a full-length play and I’m really proud of the way it’s turned out.”

After adapting classic short story The Monkey’s Paw to a stage play last year, he decided to try and write his own original script.

He said: “I wanted to create something on stage as close to a horror film as possible - using a combination of projected imagery, sound and special effects to create moments of extreme tension and terror.”

Alan, best known for his starring roles in the Inspector Drake comedy detective films, also wanted to combine a stage play with magic so he enlisted help from the team at The House of Magic in Stourbridge and recruited a special effects expert from a regional theatre to assist.

He said: “I’m confident the results will genuinely have people jumping out of their seats!”

Alan said he’s also delighted with the “amazing cast” set to appear in the production which will include a cameo by actor Tom Roberts, who starred in Coronation Street as bad boy Scott Emberton.

The play follows four friends as they spend the night in a haunted Folly and conduct a seance to contact the spirit of the young girl who died there in tragic circumstances more than a century ago.

But as the evening unfolds, darker forces are awoken.