At the shiny new Pegasus Theatre the Gonzo Moose Company thrilled and delighted an audience of all ages with their spoof gothic horror show Is That a Bolt in Your Neck? A lively company of three took on a gamut of roles from peasants to corpses to scientists — all instantly recognizable templates from the classic Hammer horror genre — but each with a hilarious quirky twist.

The setting is a creepy mid-European castle where a flashy Cambridge don (Mark Conway) travels to find the eminent but crazy Prof Checkov, played by the suitably manic Seamus Allen. While learning how to bring the dead alive using electricity and lots of strange equipment, he falls in love with the prof’s daughter. Cariad Lloyd shines as both the daughter and the (very well preserved) corpse of Checkov’s dead wife. Written by the actors and director Abigail Anderson, the script is funny and clever, but also very accessible. Visually it is rather stunning. Helen Stewart’s set is a fabulous ‘shabby chic’ and allows for lots of clever tricks and send-ups of horror film sets. Outstanding visual comedy tightly directed by Anderson pays off time and again — each madcap scene has the audience in stitches! My favourite sequence is a pas de deux between Checkov and his stone-dead wife, which has such grace while being laugh-out-load hilarious that it elicits a show-stopping round of applause.