By Talia Carl­isle

Creak­ing floor­boards, howls in the night… just anoth­er Wel­ling­ton storm or is there some­thing spooky hid­ing in Paramount’s new ven­ue, The Gods?

I’m not entirely sure since I can’t find the place… But a ghostly maze of paths and Fringe staff lead me to the aud­it­or­i­um even­tu­ally, where I man­age my less than subtle entrance, in time before my favour­ite line:

“Wait, are we sure that’s a ghost and not a kid that walked in?”

The ghost or kid wasn’t me (or was it?) but a 13-year-old ghost and tiddly­winks fan, Vic­tor (Moe Hawk) who died 136 years ago, and has been con­fined to this small attic since, yet longs for the real world and real com­pany.

Lucky for Vic­tor, he’s tracked down by tween friends Caleb (Xanthe Cur­tain) and Billy (Soph­ie Bad­rick), who call them­selves the Ghost Bros, the name of their You­Tube chan­nel which seeks out the super­nat­ur­al.

Our small audi­ence is treated like their 15 You­Tube sub­scribers as we join their search for ghosts, watch them enter­tain them­selves, argue, and prac­tice their secret hand­shake. They also try to con­tact the after­life through an inef­fect­ive Ouija Board, and argue some more over the mor­al rights of film­ing their sub­jects, either dead or alive.

Both the funny and ser­i­ous moments are emphas­ised through light­ing and sound effects by Tech Oper­at­or Michael Trigg. The light­ing and soundtrack are well util­ised, and I wish there were more effects, since they high­light the catch phrases with effects nicely, and make those without effects seem a lot emp­ti­er when there’s so many tricks thrown in through­out the rest of the show.

These effects also help make the 50-minute show go quite fast. Devised by our three act­ors for the Cur­tain Call Com­pany, this is the team that brought us Goths Against Clas­sic­al Music in 2023 and Our Place in 2024.

This show about their friend­ship describes “the coolest thing that ever happened to us” and answers import­ant ques­tions (import­ant to Vic­tor) like, “do mod­ern people not go to church?”

Caleb and Billy cre­ate a safe and fun envir­on­ment for the audi­ence to join their ghost hunt as if they are search­ing for treas­ure, because everything is excit­ing and mean­ing­ful as a young tween, and their excite­ment is con­ta­gious.

It’s lovely to see the accept­ance of Vic­tor as he embarks on his own jour­ney (and hand­shake) to become “one of the bros”.

Wheth­er you’re a bro, a ghost, alive or oth­er­wise, this show is a fun remind­er of what was once import­ant to us as kids, and what’s import­ant still. I swear on your after­life, hav­ing the right bros and the right com­pany always makes life bet­ter.