Mystery Ghost dinners in Joburg

Mark Rose-Christie, owner of the ever-popular Mystery Ghost Bus of South Africa, launched a new paranormal production called Mystery Ghost Dinners, which opened in Irene last year. This unique concept has now been launched for Johannesburg as well, where an ‘Opening Night for the Public’ will be held on June 9, at the historical and haunted Sunnyside Park Hotel.

The Sunnyside Park Hotel was once a Parktown mansion, a few of which still stand today. It was built for Hennen Jennings, an American mining engineer, whose skills were so respected and so sorely-needed regarding the gold ‘cyanide extraction process’ of the day, that a mansion was built for him to stay in South Africa to assist the mining industry. After Jennings left, during the Second Anglo-Boer War, Lord Milner occupied the premises, gathering with his colleagues in a meeting room that is today known as ‘The Club Room’. It is here that one sometimes catches the whiff of Milner’s cigar smoke, others saying that they have seen Milner’s full apparition in the room at times.

Apart from Milner, many other spectres are introduced to the guests during the first part of the Mystery Ghost Dinner evening, which is an historical tour of the hotel, where after, Rose-Christie begins with a brief history of the ghosts of some of the leading Parktown mansions, whilst soaking up the graceful gardens outside the hotel. Then the tour proceeds inside to see everything from the old pub and old elevator to the grand wooden staircase and old ball room, whilst all along enjoying the warm ambience created by the chandeliers, wall paintings and various old-worldly artefacts dotted here and there, as one moves from one section of the hotel to the other.

After a thrilling visual scare at the climax of the tour, dinner guests may not feel nearly as well-grounded when they led away from the ground floor and ever upwards into loftier areas such as ‘The Attic’, where the dinner is served. After starters, Rose-Christie presents a Victorian séance act with vintage props from the period, ranging from a teleportation cabinet to messages from the ashes, and to such well-known devices of the day such as the ‘Spirit Slates’. After a sumptuous main course, Rose-Christie and his son, Kyle, who acts as a trance medium, present the famous ‘Spirit Cabinet’, just as it was performed during the Vaudeville era. And it’s more than just spirit-writing this time, in fact the act is so impossible that it even had Houdini fooled back in the day, which then led him to becoming an escapologist.

“What is always so astounding for the audience”, Rose-Christie said, “is that the spirit cabinet curtain is opened very quickly after it is closed, yet all these manifestations occur, making it impossible for the medium to untie himself from all the knots so quickly in order to perform all the manifestations, and then still re-tie all the knots, and then on top of it, still return to his chair and resume his position – let alone have time to make all the manifestations occur”.

After dessert and coffee is served, Rose-Christie wraps the evening up with a chilling conclusion, which turns even the most hard-nosed skeptic into a believer, where he utilises a scientific explanation to explain how certain types of ghosts can exist. A surprise visual effect pops out on nowhere at a certain time, but it’s no use saying just when, or from whence it comes, as that would be a spoiler.

All details and bookings are on the website at www.MysteryGhostBus.co.za