★★★★

“Each bump, jump, scare and shock comes as a surprise in a perfectly paced and executed telling of the tale”

“As you enter, hold your nerve. As you exit, hold your tongue. Keep our secrets.”

The fact that we are handed a note containing a personal appeal from the writer to ‘keep spoiler secrets’ leaves me wondering what I can actually write about. Levi Holloway’s stage adaptation of the “Paranormal Activity” film (and its many offshoots and sequels) has enough white-knuckle twists and spine-tingling moments that, when taken away, leave just the bare bones of a chilling narrative scattered on the floor. It kind of makes my job easier in a way. The impact of this show relies on emotions rather than words and director Felix Barrett, along with illusionist Chris Fisher, tap into them like a sadistic surgeon’s catheter. There is the initial shock, followed by a tenuous sense of relief from knowing that we are, in fact, in a safe environment; surrounded by like-minded members of the audience. Often the gasps morph into nervous laughter.

I never saw any of the original film franchise, that featured the ‘found footage’ technique, whereby the characters are filming the story for themselves as they go along. This has been dispensed with for the live version (I think I’m allowed that spoiler?). Instead, the focus is on a normal couple. Two people in a two-storey house (Fly Davis’ set is a chillingly authentic reproduction of cosy suburbia, but with some dark corners where the shadows start playing tricks on our imagination). James (Patrick Heusinger) and Lou (Melissa James) have moved from Chicago to London, ostensibly to escape the evil presence that has been possessing Lou since childhood. They quickly discover, however, that places aren’t haunted, but people are (I am definitely allowed that one – it’s one of the shows taglines). Heusinger and James portray the couple with a naturalness and an almost humdrum domesticity. Until they are wrenched from everyday life into sleepless nights.

There has to be a reason for the supernatural goings-on. So, James brings in charlatan exorcist Etheline (Jackie Morrison). On this note – Holloway successfully slips in whisps of humour that, not just distracts from, but also manages to heighten the sense of impending fear. A sense intensified by Gareth Fry’s sound design and then taken to impossible heights by Anna Watson’s lighting, which are integral to the narrative. Watson paws at our senses, caressing the corners of our eye before plunging us into darkness or else revealing what may or may not be lurking in the corners of the house.

We are sometimes taken out of the moment by the trickery, and consequently wondering how they did it, but that is all part of the enjoyment of the journey. The story itself doesn’t require that much effort, until the final twists take our breath away. Teasers are continually provided by James’ mother, Carolanne (Pippa Winslow), who spends a lot of time at the other end of a video-call to James. When she eventually appears in the flesh, our own flesh is left tingling somewhat.

The four performances are quite outstanding, and give the impression that they are as fresh to the story as we are. Each bump, jump, scare and shock comes as a surprise in a perfectly paced and executed telling of the tale. I wish I could tell you more, but I’m minded of Holloway’s instructions in the press pack to ‘keep our secret’. So, it’s up to you. There’s only one way to find out. I’d urge you to… if you dare.

MARY PAGE MARLOWE

Old Vic

★★★★

“The supporting cast are uniformly excellent, providing light and shade where needed”

If you break a hologram, the original image remains visible in each fragment, but the viewing angle for each piece is narrower, like looking through a smaller window. Every fragment shows the whole picture, but from a different perspective.

Tracy Letts’ intriguing play, “Mary Page Marlowe”, is constructed along similar lines. Carefully selected moments, some mundane and some pivotal, are patch-worked together in no particular order to paint a full, yet intimate, portrait of a woman. An “unexceptional” woman, according to the titular character herself. The experience for the audience, though, is quite the opposite. It is an exceptional and extraordinary play in which time is random. Five actors perform the role of Mary Page Marlowe, charting seventy years of her life over the course of eleven short scenes. A cradle to grave story (the baby Mary is represented by a doll – a less risky proposition than having a real baby onstage as in the premiere nine years ago in Chicago) that spirals around the life of Mary Page – along with her three husbands, two children, alcoholic mother, palliative nurse, therapist, lover… and so on.

We first see her explaining how her divorce will affect and uproot her children, before we flip back to her bright and buoyant schooldays, before fast forwarding to her twilight years. She is then a baby, mewling and puking; and then the lover, sighing like a furnace. There are indeed reflections on Shakespeare’s seven stages of life, albeit as though the bard had thrown his folio into the air and let the pages fall haphazardly around him.

Each scene is succinct and stand alone in its own right; with outstanding, natural performances from the entire cast. The common thread is often missing, however, and we feel that we are not watching the same woman in different stages of her life, but many people’s stories. The distancing of emotional connection that this results in is compensated for, however, by the ingenious structure and Matthew Warchus’ sublime direction. Staged in the round, it emphasises the concept that past, present and future are as one. When the telephone rings at the end of one scene, the weight of its significance is truly felt because we have already seen what comes after.

Each Mary is highly watchable. Alisha Weir’s twelve-year-old Mary is a convincing mix of obstinance and innocence whose rose-tinted view of life is already eroded by her late teens: Eleanor Worthington-Cox captures the ambiguity of hope versus disillusionment in denial. The more Mary ages, the stronger the characterisation. Rosy McEwen, as Mary the adulteress, is a personality to be reckoned with, while Andrea Riseborough lights up the stage every time she appears with her brutally honest energy and physicality, steering Mary on a crash course off the rails. Many people may be drawn to this show by the casting of Susan Sarandon, but the play is, by no means, a vehicle for starry casting. Sarandon has as little stage time as the others, and she uses it as efficiently. Poised and in complete control, Sarandon evokes regret and sadness with a stoicism that matches her presence.

The supporting cast are uniformly excellent, providing light and shade where needed. Kingsley Morton’s schoolfriend, Connie, is a very funny breath of fresh air. Melanie La Barrie’s nurse is wryly comic but wise. A wisdom that is perhaps missing from Mary’s mother, grippingly portrayed by Eden Epstein. The moods are heightened by Hugh Vanstone’s sensitive lighting, but occasionally dampened by some overlong scene changes.

Despite all, however, Letts’ storytelling is a bit of a puzzle and, at times, hard work. The scrambled record of events can be distracting and the true hold on our attention is sometimes out of reach. We are never really let into the life of Mary Page Marlowe. The play hides as much as it reveals, which is part of its charm, but it is also frustratingly inconsequential. Letts wants us to question how much we can really know a person – even ourselves. We are teased into wanting to find out the answer, but left hanging. However, the meaninglessness (for want of a better word) is, in turn, inconsequential. We are won over by the truly mesmerising ensemble cast.

Tag Archives: Ronan Raftery

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY

★★★★

Ambassadors Theatre

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY

Ambassadors Theatre

★★★★

“Each bump, jump, scare and shock comes as a surprise in a perfectly paced and executed telling of the tale”

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY

Ambassadors Theatre

Reviewed on 15th December 2025

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Johan Persson

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY

MARY PAGE MARLOWE

★★★★

Old Vic

MARY PAGE MARLOWE

Old Vic

★★★★

“The supporting cast are uniformly excellent, providing light and shade where needed”