Sally Pomme Clayton on her show called Night Visit, that really is a matter of life and death

This Halloween I will be performing my new storytelling piece Night Visit at The Old Fire Station, as part of The Kicking the Bucket Festival — an innovative festival that celebrates both life and death.

Night Visit draws on some strange stories I heard as a child — tales my grandfather told about spirits he’d communicated with, who had helped him in his life. As a child, these stories haunted my imagination, until I was not sure if I had actually heard them, exaggerated them, or invented them myself! In the end I recorded my grandfather telling the stories. And I began to research the cultural history of spiritualism, discovering how it grew alongside the development of technology, and increased in the aftermath of the two world wars. I also found some writing left by my great-grandmother about her experiences of spiritualism.

Night Visit brings all these strands together. The recordings are now part of the performance, and my live voice interweaves with the voice of my grandfather. The beautiful words left by my great-grandmother have also been incorporated. The audience are taken into a layered narrative, a summoning of memories and ghosts, where biography and myth, merge with history and dream. I am also collaborating with other artists. Musician and composer Panos Ghikas surrounds the audience with dark and vibrant sounds. Multimedia artist Fotios Begklis uses archive footage, film and photographs to conjure other worlds. The audience can also choose to join in at the end, by playing wine glasses and making them ‘ring’ — the final sound of the performance.

I am excited about being part of The Kicking the Bucket Festival, which offers a rich range of performances, writing and art workshops. The director of the festival, Liz Rothschild, is a performer herself, and she believes that one of the best ways of exploring difficult feelings and new ideas, is through watching and participating in the arts. Night Visit might make you shiver, and question if these tales are really true! But in the end, it is about remembering and honouring our ancestors and the stories they told, so they will never be forgotten. Traditionally that is what Halloween used to be about. Relatives would visit the graves of their loved ones, to remember them. Night Visit encourages you to do the same!

Sally Pomme Clayton is a writer and performance storyteller who performs nationally and internationally.

Night Visit with Sally Pomme Clayton is at Oxford’s Old Fire Station tomorrow (Friday) at 8pm. For tickets, call 01865 305305 or visit kickingthebucket.co.uk