If you want a spiritual experience you’ve come to the right Place - Susan Morrison

The Stand had staged Fringe shows at the New Town Theatre on George Street since 2017, but are now using The Place boutique hotel, on York Place

We’d give the old girl a glow-up and temporarily changed the name to the New Town Theatre.

The actors, singers and comedians would rattle about the corridors and on the newly created stages creating the sort of mayhem and hilarity that would have raised the eyebrows of any past Freemason.

You’d imagine this would call down the wrath of past Grand Masters, but we were never confronted by the ghost of an outraged Edwardian Freemason. No, we had to deal with Petunia the poltergeist.

Now I know I’ve raised this spectre before (see what I did there?) but for those who don’t know, a quick recap.

Weird things constantly happened in the New Town Theatre. Chairs were rearranged. Curtains fell down. Lights went on and off. And I was once trapped in an underground room, when the door slammed shut behind me, the code to open the door didn’t work and the lights went out.

Oh all right, yes, I wandered in to get something, forgot to snib the lock and the door shut because it had one of those door-shutting-mechanism things. Yes, OK, I was using the wrong code. Fair enough. And the lights were on a timer. But my point stands.

I was stuck, in the dark, with only the glow of my mobile phone. And I have seen this movie too many times.

Everyone knows that if you look up from the light and into the dark, there’s going to be something horrible standing right in front of you.

There was a mirror in the room, as it happens.

My point stands. Something was wreaking havoc throughout the theatre. It didn't take me long to figure out what it was. A poltergeist.

There was plenty of evidence that our mischievous spirit was a woman. After all, chairs went over, curtains were pulled and doors slammed. We had a multi-tasker on our hands and one who didn’t like furnishings she didn’t choose.

The day the lights went nuts I explained my theory to the staff and also said she was called Petunia. To be absolutely fair, I just made that name up. She did not like it one bit.

Chairs on stage went walkabout, and I foiled her attempt to kibosh Jeremy Corbyn by smoothing out a rug that had mysteriously rucked up and created a potential trip hazard. Yes, we had hoovered for our honoured guest, but it might have been her.

We’ve left the New Town Theatre now. My first thought was of sadness for poor Petunia. This Fringe, I thought, she will prowl the empty rooms looking for her playmates. Ah well.

We are in The Place, on York Place. It's very nice, with a lovely terrace to sit on.

As ever, I am working with wonderful academics to put on ‘The Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas’, a brilliant initiative where some seriously smart people come out from our universities to talk to the public about their work. It really is food for the brain, do check out the line-up.

Stand 5 and 6, as we call it, is just fabulous.

The lights started going on and off. The manager was mildly baffled. It's not happened before.

Only one explanation. Petunia has followed us.

By the way, I'm doing a walking tour this Fringe. It's called Walking Funny, every day at 3pm, Stand 4, York Place (https://www.thestand.co.uk/fringe/2038/susan-morrison-is-walking-funny).

It's quite rude!