On a rooftop in Elizabethan London, two worlds collide. Shay is a messenger-girl and trainer of hawks who sees the future in the patterns of birds. Nonesuch is the dark star of the city’s fabled child theatre scene, as famous as royalty yet lowly as a beggar.
Together they create The Ghost Theatre: a troupe staging magical plays in London’s hidden corners. As their hallucinatory performances incite rebellion among the city’s outcasts, the pair’s relationship sparks and burns against a backdrop of the plague and a London in flames.
Their growing fame sweeps them into the black web of the Elizabethan court, where the Queen seeks a reading from Shay. It’s a moment that unleashes chaos not only in Shay’s life, but across the whole of England. Shay and Nonesuch discover that if they fly too high, a fall is sure to come…
Heady, dangerous, spellbinding and full of heart, it’s impossible not to be starstruck by the originality and power of this imaginative novel. The Ghost Theatre charts the rise and dramatic destruction of a dream born from love and torn apart by betrayal.
The novel opens with an action sequence on the rooftops of post-reformation, Elizabethan London. It features a meet-cute for the ages between messenger Shay/bird girl – disguised as boy – and the vivacious and courageous Nonesuch. A star-colliding, magical alliance commences – one which traverses the highs and lows of sexual politics, status, wealth, power, freedom and, most essentially, love.
Suede bassist Mat Osman has a rhythm and a musicality to his writing that’s as contagious as it is dazzling, as profoundly wise as it is playful and witty. The gender shifts, disguises and revelations in the narrative are deft and insightful. Osman has a delightful lightness of touch, and his sense of wonder at the world he has created is delivered with a joyous turn of phrase.
The Ghost Theatre’s rich theatricality would make for a brilliant stage production, or feature film. If, like me, you adored the clever playfulness and romance of Shakespeare in Love, you will adore The Ghost Theatre. I see this novel having a bright future and many encores. It deserves a standing ovation.
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