Matthew Dunster Archives - thespyinthestalls.com

★★★

“For the audience, there are goosebumps aplenty but no cause for nightmares”

With its previous West End successes fresh in the mind and the production now on national tour, this play by Danny Robins has all the signs of becoming a cult classic. As the house lights go down, the audience whoops and even screams in anticipation.

Lauren (Vera Chok) and her new boyfriend Ben (Jay McGuinness) are invited around to the home of Sam (George Rainsford) and Jenny (Fiona Wade) for food, drinks and a friendly catch-up. It’s a classic comedy set-up that builds on past rivalries, marital bickering, and one-upmanship between the couples. And there’s a lot of humour at play here – particularly in the ribbing between the two men – but the clue is in the title. This is not primarily a comedy but a ghost story and each of the characters has their own story to tell. The main story is that of Lauren who has witnessed and heard strange goings on at precisely 2.22am over the last few mornings and the four friends agree to wait up to witness it all for themselves. Two digital clocks are constantly on show and whilst we enjoy the shenanigans of the dinner party throughout the evening our eyes are on the clocks as the minutes move closer to the moment of truth.

The ensemble doesn’t quite gel at first. A lot of dialogue is lost in the vast Derngate auditorium as characters speak over each other. Fiona Wade excels as the exhausted mother of a new baby, exasperated that her husband can’t accept that what she has seen is real. George Rainsford is the star of the show, his bouncy enthusiasm driving everything forward. Acting newbie Jay McGuinness does well as cockney-chappie-builder, dressed in a blue suit and no socks (Cindy Lin costumes). Vera Chok gets better as Lauren gets drunker.

Sparing use of eerie soundscape heightens the mood (Ian Dickinson sound) and in a story of this type there simply has to be a scene with fog rolling in and lightning strikes (Lucy Carter lights). The set (Anna Fleischle set design) looks somewhat cramped making movement around the household furniture awkward (Directors Matthew Dunster and Isabel Marr).

Signs of the ongoing redecoration allow discussion about neighbourhood gentrification and the trend for a new generation to do away with the past. This then connects with the possibility of resident ghosts objecting to the new change. Part serious, part absurd.

It’s up to us to decide how ludicrous any of this party talk might be. Jenny, after all, is genuinely scared. For the audience, there are goosebumps aplenty but no cause for nightmares. And plenty to think on once the clock reaches 2:22.

2:22 – A Ghost Story

Gielgud Theatre

Reviewed – 12th December 2021

★★★★

“Beatriz and Buckley are an unlikely duo on paper perhaps, but combined they are the absolute shining stars of this production”

You can’t beat a good ghost story in a theatre. The darkened auditorium, the focused hush, the sheer unlikeliness of something in a proscenium arch genuinely scaring you.

I remember the first time I saw The Woman in Black, the ultimate theatrical ghost story. I was 14, and having seen a fair bit of theatre already, I fancied myself a little sophisticate. But the first time the woman in black appeared on stage I literally screamed and dove under my brother’s seat. Deeply embarrassed I quickly composed myself, only to do it again 15 minutes later. But The Woman in Black ticks the box on nearly every classic ghost story trope- the old, mysterious setting, the misty moors, a stranger coming to a strange place, a world still living largely in candlelight. 2:22, however, sets the scene in the bright light of modernity with no tropes to hide behind.

Taking place in a doer-upper that’s been gutted and tastefully redecorated (designed by Anna Fleischle), there are no shadows, no scary nooks, no creaking floorboards. On first glance, this is the last place you’d expect to see a ghost, everything new and gleaming, the paint still wet. Even the shrieks from outside are cleanly explained away by smug scientist Sam (Elliot Cowan) as foxes getting it on.

But despite the lovely open-plan space, motion-censored lights outside, and Alexa conducting the house’s technology on demand, Sam’s wife Jenny (Giovanna Fletcher) feels far less certain that there aren’t supernatural forces afoot. For the past few nights, at 2:22am precisely, she hears footsteps in her daughter’s bedroom, and a man sobbing. When she switches on the light- poof- it’s gone. With guests over for dinner, they decide to make a night of it, waiting until 2:22 to hear for themselves.

Writer Danny Robbins toes the line with balletic aplomb between silly fun with friends and a genuine coaxing fear amongst the cast, and the audience in turn. Guest Lauren (Stephanie Beatriz), sort of believes but is just up for a fun boozy night, where her new partner Ben (James Buckley) is an excitable believer. It’s a nice balance against husband Sam who is maddeningly cynical, and wife Jenny who is exasperatingly histrionic.

The play is perforated with a harrowing scream throughout, which, after maybe the first one, doesn’t really make sense. Its purpose seems only to make the audience jump and to irritate me, which is a shame because the plot is plenty unnerving without it, and if anything, it’s quite distracting, causing a kind of pantomime effect with the audience who, having jumped out of their skins, end up laughing and talking amongst themselves after each one.

Beatriz and Buckley are an unlikely duo on paper perhaps, but combined they are the absolute shining stars of this production. Both known for their previous comic roles, each employs deft comic timing as a mood-lifter as well as a creation of awkward, sometimes painful intensity. It’s artistry to be able to make an audience laugh whilst simultaneously furthering the tension. They also both show themselves to be serious actors, with plenty of emotional scope.

Cowan is playful and gratingly smug, whilst retaining his humanity. He does well to appear not to realise his negative effect on those around him, keeping him on just about the right side of likeable.

Fletcher, however, pitches herself at around 9 from the very beginning and therefore has very little room for growth in hysteria and upset. It would be far more affecting if she had played at least the first half as ‘mildly irritated’ rather than ‘capsizingly distressed’. But if you don’t want it to ruin the rest of the story, you have to actively decide that maybe her character is just quite annoying but still deserving of sympathy.
This is not ground-breaking work, and the final explanation of the ghostly occurrences (don’t worry, I’m not going to ruin it) is only just about satisfying. But it’s ideal wintery entertainment; a titillating plot with genuinely intriguing characters and relationships, and surprisingly funny.

2:22 A GHOST STORY at the Royal & Derngate Theatre

★★★

“For the audience, there are goosebumps aplenty but no cause for nightmares”

2:22 A GHOST STORY at the Royal & Derngate Theatre (as part of UK tour)

Reviewed on 10th January 2024

by Phillip Money

Photography by Johan Persson

Previously reviewed at this venue:

2:22 A GHOST STORY

2:22 A GHOST STORY

Gielgud Theatre

Reviewed – 12th December 2021

★★★★

“Beatriz and Buckley are an unlikely duo on paper perhaps, but combined they are the absolute shining stars of this production”

You can’t beat a good ghost story in a theatre. The darkened auditorium, the focused hush, the sheer unlikeliness of something in a proscenium arch genuinely scaring you.

Cowan is playful and gratingly smug, whilst retaining his humanity. He does well to appear not to realise his negative effect on those around him, keeping him on just about the right side of likeable.

Reviewed by Miriam Sallon

Photography by Helen Murray

2:22 – A Ghost Story

Gielgud Theatre until 12th February

Previously reviewed by Miriam this year: