The Hour

The world of paranormal activity is being brought to life at the Edinburgh Festival. Themed around a subject normally reserved for frightening audiences, Richard Cameron’s new play, An Evening with Elsie Parsons, is a surprisingly upbeat experience.

A make-believe séance, initially filled with more show tunes than harrowing ghostly encounters, becomes a more sinister tale of child abuse and murder as time goes on. English actress Lorraine Chase plays Laura, a psychic medium trapped between the world of showbiz and that of the dead.

“The play is full of black humour, and there are some big laughs, but it’s a deep play with a message and one from which you come out feeling uplifted. It’s really a wonderful bit of writing,” Lorraine said.

The former model first came to the Fringe a couple of years ago, and she is now thrilled to be appearing at it. She said: “I was meant to be doing the play next year, and at first it was going to be a monologue, but then something happened to me in my own life quite recently which hit me very hard.

“I called Richard and asked if we could bring the play forward because I really had to put my head into something.”

Lorraine shot to fame in the 1970s through a series of television adverts for Campari. She starred in 1980s sitcom The Other ‘Arf and appeared in children’s television show Worzel Gummidge. More recently she played the character of Stephanie Stokes in Emmerdale.

The British beauty never had aspirations to become an actress. She said: “I had got into modelling as a fluke, and then the commercial happened and it killed me off as a model.

“I was always extremely shy and wondered how I got away with being a model, and still to this day I wonder when someone is going to suss me out!”

An Evening with Elsie Parsons, which also stars Mike Burns from British sitcom The Brittas Empire, is showing at The Dome on George Street from August 19 – 28.

For more information about the play, see the Edinburgh Festival guide