Review: 2:22 A Ghost Story
Festival Theatre, Edinburgh ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
There’s no escaping Danny Robins right now. On the back of his phenomenally successful podcasts, The Battersea Poltergeist and Uncanny, his name has become shorthand for all things spooky and supernatural.
There’s the new Uncanny television series, a book of the same name and the Uncanny Live roadshows, and then there’s 222: A Ghost Story, Robins’ ‘shivers-down-the-spine’ stage play currently touring the country after an acclaimed West End run.
Sam and Jenny have invited Ben and Lauren over for dinner in their new home, a house Jenny believes is haunted. Husband Sam, however, the voice of science and logic remains to be convinced, after all there are no such things as ghosts. Or are there?
As the wine flows, the four friends discuss the phenomena Jenny has been experiencing including frightening footsteps and disembodied voices both heard through the baby monitor. It soon becomes clear that in this house, midnight is no longer the ‘witching hour’… the time they have to fear is 2:22am.
Directed at a breakneck pace by Matthew Dunster and Isabel Marr, the rapid-fire delivery of the cast sees tensions build quickly as the fear factor ramps up.
With jump scares galore, there are moments the proverbial pin could be heard drop so complete is the silence in the auditorium.
As the wine flows so repressed emotions and hidden insecurities surface and Charlene Boyd is convincing as the inebriated and lost Lauren while Joe Absolom, as her new boyfriend Ben, injects some welcome lighter moments to proceedings. Nathanial Curtis, meanwhile, provides a stoic voice of reason as Sam.
Although an ensemble piece, it’s Louisa Lytton who shines. Her Jenny hits all the right notes, feisty yet fragile, frustrated, angry and scared.
But 2:22 isn’t just a ghost story. It’s part psychological thriller and part social comment, gentrification, the class system and ancient beliefs all getting a look in as the clock flicks relentlessly towards 2:22am. There’s even the obligatory seance scene, which sheds even more light on the interwoven relationships at the heart of the piece.
Consequently, 2:22 A Ghost Story is a theatrical curiosity. In many ways it’s more than the sum of its parts and perhaps that is what has captured the imaginations of West End and regional audiences alike.
And if the ‘Shhh…Please don’t tell’ appeal as the final blackout falls has echoes of The Mousetrap… well, we all know for how long people have kept that particular secret. Audiences love being complicit.
Run ends 30 September, tour dates here https://222aghoststory.com/about/
Credit: Líam Rudden’s Must See Theatre