THE SCOTSMAN - ****

'Directed by Douglas Irvine with a fine sense of pace, some effective use of blurry live video, and terrific atmosphere of foreboding. . . there's a good-looking, understated shipboard set by Lisa Sangster, and a fine soundscape by Daniel Padden. And within the short span of this drama, Forrest manages to raise some powerful questions about how we respond to evil; with fear or fascination, fatal cynicism, or the kind of passionate resistance the captain of the Demeter never ceases to offer, even when he knows that he and his ship are doomed.' Joyce McMillan

THE LIST ****

'This spookily enjoyable tale from Visible Fictions starts with as many questions as it ends with. As we enter the auditorium, the stage is already set - a wooden ship lies bereft of crew, its lonely cargo conjuring up Marie Celeste-style mysteries.

Sixty minutes later, we're none the wiser. Crew members have come and gone, all skilfully played by actors Jonathan Holt and Gavin Kean - but where to, and at whose hand, remains a mystery. Or does it? Listening to the departing audience speculate, it's clear everyone has their own theory about how cursed the ship actually is.

The show is inspired by Bram Stocker's gothic novel, Dracula, in which the Russian ship Demeter runs aground in North Yorkshire minus all but one of its crew. Tied to his wheel, the dead captain remains onboard, his log detailing the mysterious loss of all his men.

In an age where TV and film can conjure up such real-looking horror, it's testament to the Visible Fictions team that they have made this stage show so suspenseful. Using the relatively simple tools of atmospheric lighting and a hand-held camera - not to mention the palpable fear of Holt and Kean - the company somehow manages to gently slide you towards the edge of your seat.'  Kelly Apter

NORTHINGS

'To create an atmosphere of terror on the stage takes some doing. To do it with only two actors is a greater accomplishment still. But that's what Visible Fictions manages in this edge-of-your-seat staging of Robert Forrest's teen-friendly play inspired by the section of Bram Stoker's Dracula in which the Transylvanian vampire stows away on the good ship Demeter and stalks the crew on their voyage to England.

On Lisa Sangster's simple wooden set of gangways and drawers, Jonathan Holt and Gavin Kean play all the characters from captain to 12-year-old recruit, marking the changes by instant switches in status and accent, always with the utmost clarity.

So effortlessly do they appear to populate the ship that they are able to conjure up Dracula by his absence more than his presence. For much of the play, the vampire is a suspicion, a fear, an uneasy feeling. Even when the men start disappearing, their fate is not entirely certain; an uncertainty that intensifies the air of horror.

When the unwelcome passenger does show himself, he speaks into a microphone like some malevolent narrator, both distant and controlling. It is technical tricks such as this that distinguish Douglas Irvine's production. Like his similarly spooky 2004 production Into the Dark, The Curse of the Demeter has a touch of The Blair Witch Project about it, this time evoked by the actors using a hand-held video camera to pursue each other round the set in the most dangerous moments. Not only does the screen imagery unsettle us with its shakiness, but also it creates the illusion of a much bigger boat than the set alone can convey.

It does this without letting the technology take over. There is no question the show works in theatrical terms. Yet by, for example, focusing the camera on one actor's eyes at a point of greatest terror, it exploits the capacity for a cinematic close-up to maximum dramatic effect.

Throw in a suitably haunting score by Daniel Padden and you have a grippingly executed exercise in fear.'  Mark Fisher