Andrea Taaffe inside the Hastings Opera House at Toitoi Hawke's Bay Arts and Events Centre, which she believes to be haunted. Photo / Rafaella Melo
Andrea Taaffe inside the Hastings Opera House at Toitoi Hawke's Bay Arts and Events Centre, which she believes to be haunted. Photo / Rafaella Melo
It’s widely believed (among those who believe in ghosts) that theatres are hot spots of paranormal activity.
From the Drury Lane Ghost at London’s Theatre Royal, to the spirit of silent film actress Olive Thomas haunting New York City’s New Amsterdam Theatre, to Yuri the ghost of a Russian performerat Wellington’s St James’ Theatre, every theatre big and small seems to hold long-term residents.
Hawke’s Bay Opera House is no different.
Built in 1915, the Hastings lyric theatre surrounded by opulent Art Nouveau interiors is an ideal space for any spirit to spend eternity.
Investigated by paranormal investigators in 2009, the crew of ghostbusters had digital photos disappear from a hard drive, watches jump forward two hours, shadows appear on walls, theatre seats left down as if someone was sitting on them, and a strange aroma float through the theatre.
Before working at the Opera House, Taaffe considered herself a doubting Thomas about the paranormal.
But after two personal ghostly experiences at the building and hearing countless stories from her colleagues, Taaffe is now 100% a believer.
“You can’t have a building that old without some sort of energy lingering around,” she said.
Taaffe’s first paranormal experience came on the day of the reopening of the Opera House in February 2020, when she and a colleague were in early for some last-minute jobs.
Upon arriving, she heard voices and laughter coming from the building’s foyer underneath the big stained-glass window.
Taaffe thought the cleaners must have arrived early and went to disarm the building’s alarms in the main office and found the foyer was still alarmed.
“I could hear them laughing and carrying on, and then I went ‘hang on, this isn’t right’,” she said.
“Then I unalarmed it and went through, and not a soul there.”
Taaffe’s next spooky experience came only a week later.
A member of the Opera House crew had died six months earlier, and Taaffe was lifting the old carpet.
She was conducting the final checks and found the business card of the gentleman who had just died.
“Those are the little goosebumpy moments where I can’t explain it,” she said.
“You could say, well, it fell out of someone’s pocket, but there was no one else around.
“So, I just picked it up and put it in my pocket and said, ‘Oh well, well done, Roger.’”
Andrea Taaffe inside the Hastings Opera House at Toitoi Hawke's Bay Arts and Events Centre, which she believes to be haunted. Photo / Rafaella Melo
Other ghost stories from the Opera House that Taaffe has heard first-hand include a member of a touring group having a chat with a mysterious lady in red in a stairwell, crew members white as ghosts after speaking to lost ghosts trying to exit the theatre from the top balcony, and a young technical staff member running down an internal stairwell got smacked in the head by an invisible force, leaving an egg shaped welt.
“The old theatre manager used to always go on to people about running in the theatre,” she said.
“So we decided he got smacked in the head.”
Taaffe says she believes the strange presences within the Opera House are not evil, but are there to look after the place.
Audiences have nothing to fear, as long as they mind their manners.
“If they’re doing something that’s not good, perhaps they might get a little reminder of you know, etiquette and whatnot,” she said.
“I look at it as a little bit custodial on the ghosts’ part, and they’re very happy for us to be there as long as we’re not causing any strife.
“It’s over 100 years old. There’s been a lot of people through that place and big connections to it. So, so it makes sense that there’s that sort of vibe around.”
Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and has worked in radio and media in Britain, Germany, and New Zealand.
