New comedy The Highgate Vampire staged in Waterloo

But that’s what happened in 1970 when self-styled psychic investigator David Farrant claimed to have seen a grey figure looming inside Highgate Cemetery.

What followed saw a flurry of replies reporting supernatural sightings, and hordes of amateur vampire hunters and tabloid hacks breaking into the burial ground in search of the so-called Highgate Vampire.

David Farrant, who died in 2019, was a Highgate resident who first sent a letter about a grey figure in Highgate Cemetery to the Ham&High in 1970. (Image: Dark Morte) It ended with claims of sex rituals, discovering foxes with their innards ripped out, and a high profile Old Bailey trial with Farrant jailed for desecrating graves.

New two-man comedy The Highgate Vampire turns a darkly humorous eye on the over-hyped saga.

Staged in the round in The Glitch theatre’s basement space, it’s inspired by the rivalry between Farrant and Sean Manchester who described himself as President of the British Occult Society, and claimed to have exorcised the vampire.

Farrant’s original letter in the Ham&High was treated as a joke by the editor but sparked a flurry of responses claiming supernatural sightings. (Image: Ham&High) There were even unfounded rumours the pair would meet in a ‘magicians’ duel’ on Parliament Hill on Friday 13th April 1973.

“I came across the story of two duelling magicians engaging in a sort of psychic magic battle on the Heath to prove their supernatural ability and it sounded like good material for a play,” says Alex Knott of Bag of Beard Theatre.

“We went to the cemetery to get a sense of the vibe and dove into the research.”

Co-created with James Demaine and described as “imagine if The Woman in White was performed by The Mighty Boosh,” it’s “loosely based” on events as a duo form an uneasy alliance to stage a lecture about their exploits.

Hackney based James Demaine plays a character loosely modelled on David Farrant. (Image: Charlie Flint) “They loathed each other, both claimed to have slayed the vampire and were suspicious of each other’s motivations. It’s the source of much tension and we lean into that,” says Knott.

“A bit like Operation Mincemeat, we’re taking a surreal look at a true story, coming at it from a dark comedy angle; a defrocked priest and a psychic investigator who have hired a space to give a scientific lecture – and one turns up with a bag of props.

“We tip our hat to the spookiness, engender an unsettling energy, but tread a line between light and dark, it’s an absurdist send up.”

Knott and Demaine, whose previous work includes A Christmas Carol spin off Cratchit at Park Theatre in 2022, are personally divided into team sceptic and team believer.

“I think it’s an early example of a hysteria that built up around a story and caught flame,” says Knott.

But he jokes: “We live in fear of pentagrams daubed on our front doors and getting entrails in the post.

“We are split down the middle myself and James. I strongly believe there is nothing in this story or any kind of a vampire, and he is slightly worried about dark shadows in the corner of the room at night.

“There’s a moment where my character incants St Christopher’s prayer so anyone slightly worried can feel it’s a safe space.

“If people have never heard the story, then leave the theatre and look it up, they will realise a lot of the events are alarmingly accurate – as we say – more of this is true than we would like.”

The Highgate Vampire runs April 30-May 5 at The Glitch theatre in Waterloo.