THE POLTERGEIST
Arcola Theatre
★★★★★
“Davison’s performance is a tour-de-force”
The Poltergeist, by award-winning playwright Philip Ridley, is an extraordinary piece of storytelling which will haunt you long after you leave the theatre. Strap yourself in for this is a rollercoaster of a ride. Lone actor, Louis Davison, plays all the characters, including the protagonist Sasha – a former art world prodigy – at breakneck speed.
In the world of the play, Sasha has fallen from his former artistic fame and glory and now shares a flat with his boyfriend Chet in the East End of London. It is here that he battles addiction, paranoia and navigates dysfunctional family dynamics. Having been something of a one-hit wonder as a teenager, he is now tortured by an agonising sense of artistic failure. But is any of this truly justified in a surface level, social media-driven, celebrity obsessed art world? The mercenary, superficial nature of modern-day art culture is exposed to great comic effect in the scene where Davison continually switches between playing Sasha and a female American art dealer/promoter out on the prowl for artistic young blood to help line her own pocket.
Davison’s performance is a tour-de-force. The vocal and physical speed, energy and vigour with which he shifts between six different characters, is a feat to behold. The fine craft of an actor at the height of his game is on full display here. Much credit too must go to the director, Wiebke Green. The general tempo of this piece may feel unrelentingly fast – perhaps too much for some – but this is something that is clearly reflected in the ‘in-yer-face’ nature of the script and the rhythm of the writing. Green does not shy away from doing it justice and ramps it up to the ninth degree (there are few dramatic pauses or silences in this work); this helps to charge the juxtaposed slower paced, more tender later scenes in the play with even more emotional resonance. Also, the creative decision to completely strip back and do without any set or props works well and makes for a more raw and powerful audience experience.
Social conventions and etiquette are frequently juxtaposed with Sasha’s dark sense of wit and his deeper search for honesty and truth. Of his niece’s birthday party, Sasha wittily says, ‘This is where Hieronymus Bosh meets the Barbie doll.’ Ironically, it is at his niece’s birthday party where Sasha eventually experiences an emotional healing of sorts at the end of his long and tortuous journey. ‘The surface is waterlilies but underneath it’s all sharks and formaldehyde’ is another stand out line in this play. Clearly this is an artistic reference to Monet and Damien Hirst but it’s also a metaphor for the disturbing truths that lie underneath a façade of superficial, social niceties in many families.
This is a play about memories and the haunting nature of past choices. But at its emotional core, it is a play about grief. Ridley’s trademark darkly comic tone is evident through much of the storytelling but as the narrative propels us towards the final scenes, there is a note-perfect beautiful tenderness that is haunting in and of itself.
THE POLTERGEIST
Arcola Theatre
Reviewed on 23rd September 2025
by Tim Graves
Photography by Simon Annand
Previously reviewed at this venue:
RODNEY BLACK: WHO CARES? IT’S WORKING | ★★ | September 2025
SENSE AND SENSIBILITY: THE MUSICAL | ★★★★ | August 2025
JANE EYRE | ★★★★★ | August 2025
CLIVE | ★★★ | August 2025
THE RECKONING | ★★★★ | June 2025
IN OTHER WORDS | ★★★★ | May 2025
HEISENBERG | ★★★ | April 2025
CRY-BABY, THE MUSICAL | ★★★★★ | March 2025
THE DOUBLE ACT | ★★★★★ | January 2025
TARANTULA | ★★★★ | January 2025
