At Corner Store, M.R. James's Ghost Stories Are Brought Back to Life

Robert Lloyd Parry recites M.R. James's spooky tales by candlelight, which the legendary British author himself did. (By Ruth Horry -- Corner Store)

"There's just a great control of style," Parry says, "an effortless ability to turn a phrase and to structure a story -- the great originality of the imagination, and it's all perfectly timed. A lot of them are like very well-told jokes, but instead of making you laugh, they give you a shiver."

In December 2005, the Fitzwilliam Museum planned a special exhibition of medieval manuscripts that James had catalogued. As a complement, Parry offered to perform as James, reading two of his stories to an audience in his office. The museum agreed.

"I was confident they could be performed as monologues, because that's how they were written, which is perhaps what sets them apart from other ghost stories," Parry says.

The performance was a hit. "Lloyd Parry restores the charm and pleasure of the original tales with his excellent and convincing storytelling," the Cambridge Evening News wrote.

Parry landed a three-week slot at a fringe theater in London. Eventually, audiences raved and he began to book the show into pretty much any venue in Britain that would have him.

Last November, he was invited to perform in Saratoga Springs, Fla., at the World Fantasy Convention. More applause, as well as an invitation to perform this year at a small theater -- "tiny," Parry says -- in New York. The Washington dates were an add-on to the New York run, which he is just about to finish.

"We're more an art salon than a theater," says Kris Swanson, an artist who, with husband Roy Mustelier, owns the Corner Store. "But Robert's show is a good fit."

The Corner Store is a grand brick structure at the end of a line of rowhouses. Since its construction in 1870, it has been split between business space on the ground floor and living space above. In 1968, it was a family corner store, as it always had been in one form or another, when an attempted robbery went bad and an employee reportedly was shot to death.

"The family boarded it up and it stayed that way until 2001, when we bought it," Swanson says. Today, the ground floor is a neighborhood gallery with one large room of exposed brick and hardwood floor serving as an occasional performance space capable of seating about 60 people. It's here that Parry will tell two of James's tales -- "The Ash Tree" and "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad" -- by candlelight.

Wine and light fare also will be on hand. Maybe even a real ghost or two?

Asked whether he believed they existed, James, reticent as always, said only, "Depend upon it, but we do not know the rules."

Robert Lloyd Parry will perform tonight at 7:30 at Corner Store, 900 South Carolina Ave. SE. $15 in advance, $20 at the door. 202-544-5807.