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

THE POLTERGEIST

THE POLTERGEIST at the Arcola Theatre

★★½

“It feels like it came from a young, angsty mind who hasn’t seen or read enough yet but who has a lot of exciting potential”

There are certain trademarks of a Philip Ridley story present, in some formation or other, in pretty much everything he writes: deep unexplained trauma, repression, mania, dark humour and unusual family dynamics. Normally these markers serve as a jumping-off point for nuanced and unexpected ideas- his seminal 1991 play, The Pitchfork Disney, for example, or Tender Napalm, staged only last year at the Kings Head Theatre. But in the case of The Poltergeist, they serve as the entire idea, with no nuance or unexpectedness in sight.

In fact, after the first minute of the script I know exactly what I’m in for: Artist, Sasha (Joseph Potter) tensely prepares to visit his brother for his niece’s birthday party which he desperately doesn’t want to attend, even with his calming, lovely partner Chet in tow. He’s already seething over his favourite face mask being empty, nastily predicting his boyfriend’s behaviours by counting down 3-2-1 before Chet will inevitably knock on the bathroom door to check he’s ok (what a monster). He’s cynical and mean in a way that leaves no room for sympathy, and which makes any ‘jokes’ completely not funny; unfortunate, given we’ve got to spend the next 85 minutes with him as a spitting, crazed wreck.

Don’t get me wrong, whilst we’ve seen the repressed trauma story a million times, I still think it’s relevant and meaty enough for us to see it some more. But 85 minutes of being glared and yelled at will not cut it.

Potter, being the only performer, is required to play multiple roles at this children’s party. He works exceedingly hard throughout, not only cranking up his already raging character from 10 to 11, but also switching in a group conversation between five or six characters. But with the combination of too many voices speaking in close proximity, and the characters being only vague, stereotyped outlines, it becomes exhausting and insipid to watch. And the big reveal of why Sasha is angry at his brother comes so late and is already so completely predictable that the relief it’s supposed to bring hardly touches the sides. If Potter hadn’t been directed to spit every word with intense hate from the very beginning, it’s possible the effect would have been different, but likely nominally so.

A set and costume consultant is listed in the programme, but there’s no staging, and Potter wears a single outfit throughout- a shiny shirt tucked into light blue jeans- which I hate. It takes until Sasha and Chet are in the car on a mobile phone for me to realise this is set in the present day, because he’s dressed like an early ‘80s George Michael.

If this were a young writer’s first foray, I would likely feel quite different. It feels like it came from a young, angsty mind who hasn’t seen or read enough yet but who has a lot of exciting potential. But it’s from a giant! Philip Ridley, for goodness’ sake! And in the context of his wildly impressive oeuvre, this is beyond disappointing.

Tag Archives: The Poltergeist

THE POLTERGEIST

★★★★★

Arcola Theatre

THE POLTERGEIST

Arcola Theatre

★★★★★

“Davison’s performance is a tour-de-force”