REVIEW: 2:22 A Ghost Story

The autumn nights are getting longer, the temperatures are getting colder, and along comes a chilling ghost drama to usher in Halloween.

2:22 A Ghost Story is now playing at The Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham.

Podcaster Danny Robins of Uncanny fame – whose podcast of The Battersea Poltergeist terrified listeners and left people around the world pondering about ghosts – has created a stage show that is attracting some serious attention.

The hugely successful West End show is now touring and it arrives just in time for the Halloween season in the West Midlands.

The story is set in London and revolves around a couple who are decorating and sprucing up their new home. The old house seems to have a strange history that comes alive every night at exactly 2:22am when the baby monitor picks up the eerie sounds of someone walking around the child’s room and a male voice crying. The mother is terrified that her little daughter’s room may be haunted by something supernatural. The father is a rationalist and flippantly explains away all of the creaks and strange sounds to things such as old plumbing and machinery.

When two friends accept an invitation and come over for a dinner party at the house they take up the offer to stay behind until 2:22am and see if there is anything to the ghostly sounds that terrify the mother. The alcohol and warm food emboldens the guests and they are intrigued to find out what’s really going on in the creaky old house.

Writer Danny Robins fails to tap into the terror and chills that normally make his podcasts and BBC show Uncanny so creepy and frightening. The stage show needs some serious pruning, and it needs to drop the soap opera aspects, tone down the comedy, remove the attacks upon religion and go straight for the jugular like the lean mean one-act play Ghost Stories by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman. That terrifying drama wastes no time at all and delivers scares that get under the skin of the audience.

The real praise in Danny Robins’ stage show goes to the cast and crew who work real magic with the lukewarm material.

Anna Fleischle’s confined set designs for this show add a layer of claustrophobia which heightens the unsettling atmosphere. The simplicity and ordinariness of Fleischle’s designs makes the drama even more real and immediate as there are details in the kitchen set that will be familiar to most people in the audience. The characters seem trapped inside a nightmarish space from which there is no escape.

The unearthly sound design by Ian Dickinson is really effective and unnerves the audience even before the curtain rises. The ominous sound generates a palpable sense of unease and dread.

The performances are exceptional and praise goes out to Stacey Dooley as the traumatised mother. Her mannerisms, eyes and facial expressions convey her terror in subtle ways which makes her performance even more real.

Kevin Clifton (Stacey’s real life partner) is very good as the sceptical husband who tries to downplay his wife’s rising paranoia.

Grant Kilburn and Shvorne Marks also put in excellent performances as the couple who agree to stay behind after the dinner party to see if a supernatural event takes place.

2:22 A Ghost Story uses creative stagecraft, creepy sounds and haunting performances to scare the audience.

Verdict: ★★★

2:22 A Ghost Story is now playing at The Alexandra Theatre until Saturday 18^th October