Perfomer quits 'haunted' venue

Lounge singer Stacey Smith has quit the cast of a Fringe show after experience "terrifying" psychic episodes in its venue, an old cave.

She claims Caves 2, one of the Gilded Balloon's performance spaces, is haunted and has refused to return there.

Stacey said: "During two of our preview shows, I heard and felt hot breath on the back of my neck, and an overwhelming sense that someone was standing behind me on stage."

"I've had nightmares ever since, and now nothing is going to get me back into that place."

Stacey will rejoin the group, Sketch Club, when it re-starts its weekly residency at Downstairs At The Kings Head in London.

The show's producers Andrew Barclay and Brian West said they were disappointed to be losing a member of their cast after only four shows.

"We obviously don't want Stacey to go" says Barclay, "But we're certainly not going to force her go into a place that she finds frightening or uncomfortable."

Sketch Club was the show that planned to unveil previously unseen Graham Chapman until permission was withdrawn.

Published: 7 Aug 2002