Bunker Talk #160: Kelly Jones x Adam Z. Robinson

Kelly Jones x Adam Z. Robinson

Stage Fright: Staging the Ghost Story

This event is presented by the Performance Research Group x Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies.

Ghost stories have long been associated with performance. Many of us have enjoyed the thrill of sharing the telling of spooky tales around the winter fireside, or the thrill of dressing up as a ghoul for Halloween. But what happens to the tales of the dead when they are brought to life in the theatre? Join host Brontë Schiltz (writer and academic), Adam Z. Robinson (writer, actor and theatre-maker), Dr Kelly Jones (academic and author of Staging the Ghost Story: Shadows in the Limelight) as they discuss the thrills and challenges of staging the ghost story.

Dr Kelly Jones is Senior Lecturer in Drama at the University of Lincoln where she specialises in theatrical realisations of the supernatural and stage Gothic. Her most recent publication is Staging the Ghost Story: Shadows in the Limelight (Palgrave, 2025).
Adam Z. Robinson is a writer, theatre-maker and award-winning author of flash fiction. His theatre work includes: Upon the Stair (“Everyone needs to see this show” - ✭✭✭✭½ The Reviews Hub) and Smile Club (✭✭✭✭ - The Guardian) co-written with Andrea Heaton. His plays The Book of Darkness & Light and Shivers toured nationally between 2016-2019. As well as his original plays, Adam has adapted classic works for the stage: Nightmares (national tour 2024), Haunted (two national tours, 2023) and A Christmas Carol (national tours 2019-25; residencies London 2022, New Brunswick, Canada, 2023). Adam's other writing includes: Conscientious (national tour 2014), Belle & Mary (a true crime play commissioned by The Dukes Lancaster) and Seaside Terror (national tours 2017-20) with OddDoll Theatre. His play, Unhomely, premiered at Leeds Playhouse in 2024 and is published, along with his other playtexts, with Playdead Press. Adam is the host of The Ghost Story Book Club podcast.

Bunker Talks

This event is part of Bunker Talks. Bunker Talks invite artists and researchers to talk about who they are and what they do. Curated by the Performance Research Group at Manchester School of Art and the School of English, Bunker Talks explore geopolitical, ecological or economic concerns. The talks create space for critical encounters, presentations, provocation and dialogue as part of a civic conversation.

Originally conceived in the pandemic to explore how artists, writers, curators and researchers continued to make and share their work, live Bunker Talks now take place at The Salutation every month. Since 2020, over 150 talks have been hosted by Performance Researchers and colleagues from across the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. All talks are recorded, edited, captioned and then archived to create an online catalogue, capturing how artists, makers and curators think about the world today. Find previous talks here: https://www.art.mmu.ac.uk/bunkertalks/

Main Event Contact and URL

Michael Pinchbeck [email protected]

https://www.art.mmu.ac.uk/bunkertalks/talk-160/

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Host or Publisher MIGS: Migration & Interdisciplinary Global Studies