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Show: 2:22 – A Ghost Story
Society: London (professional shows)
Venue: Noël Coward Theatre, 85-88 St Martin's Lane, London
Credits: by Danny Robins
Type: Sardines
Author: Kevin Doig
Performance Date: 11/08/2021
2:22 – A Ghost Story
Kevin Doig | 14 Aug 2021 00:28am
Photos: Helen Murray
Tension, shock and (nervous) laughs abound
Ghost stories are few and far between in London’s West End. Notable successful shows have included “Woman In Black” by Stephen Mallatratt from the novel by Susan Hill and “Ghost Stories” by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman. I love a good ghost story, a supernatural film and tales with a sting in the tail. Blood and guts do not tick my boxes but atmosphere and tension maketh a great experience for me! “Woman In Black” and “Ghost Stories” have both had me almost jumping out of my seat at the theatre so it was with eager anticipation that I took my seat at the Noel Coward Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue. How high would I jump tonight? How loud would the audience be screaming in delightful terror around me?
It was a little ironic that this play was running in the Noel Coward Theatre just a few doors away from the Duke of York’s Theatre which was coincidentally playing Noel Coward’s own ghost story, “Blithe Spirit” – a great favourite of mine and many amateur societies all around the country.
This play started with a sudden total blackout and deafening scream immediately followed by the audience blinded by a bright red string of neon light framing the proscenium in front of us. A good, solid shock start, I thought. The tension was immediate. A modern living room scene cleverly designed to represent an old Victorian house midway through a huge modernisation scheme being carried out by the young couple recently moved in. The young mother was seen to be clearing up the room in preparation for a dinner party whilst monitoring her sleeping baby on the sound monitor on the coffee table. A deep rumbling music was building the tension as the mother trod on a toy letting out a scream. The second jump for the audience followed by nervous laughter.
The set is dominated by a large pair of modern French windows at the back of the stage outside which there is a security light which comes on automatically when movement is detected. That was a really nice touch which I predicted would play a big part in shocking the audience later in the play. There was also a convenient swirling fog outside the window. Perfect! I pictured a scratching sound, the light come on and a mysterious figure seen behind the fog! But I was to be disappointed that the device was really not utilised as effectively as it could have been.
I loved the modern touches put in to set this play firmly in the present. As well as the security light we had a good running gag based around dialogue with the electronic Alexa! The joke was overplayed a little – perhaps playwright Robins should be introduced to the “rule of three”! The play all takes place over one evening almost in real time although the hour is advanced between scenes. The whole concept of the play is that something is going to happen at precisely 2:22am. We have a big digital clock on the set showing the time (and advancing at speed when time moves forward) which is an excellent trick for creating tension as the moment drew close.
Talking of “tricks” there were occasions when we, as the audience, really felt our mood was being manipulated. These tricks were really not very subtle. Deep throbbing music, a screaming fox outside the French windows (a nice idea once, maybe twice, but repeatedly and over used here), that loud scream and blinding light used at the start of the play, and again at the end of scene one, and again at the end of Act I and again at the start of Act II, and again – well, you get the idea.
The main bulk of the evening was the dinner party given by the young couple with another young couple, the four of whom made up almost completely the cast (two others making a very brief appearance). The dinner party was a little in the Mike Leigh or Alan Ayckbourn mood initially, the relationship between the bickering foursome was never explained – nor was it necessary. But it quickly moved on to each one talking about their own experience of ghosts and the supernatural.
Pop star Lily Allen plays the young mother. Although not a disgrace, she has a lot to learn following her acting debut. It is possibly the direction, but she turned on a very effective hysterical performance far too early in the play so that there was nowhere to go but remain hysterical. She was fine when being low-key and fine when hysterical but there seemed nothing in between. The other star name was Jake Wood (Max in EastEnders) but as is so often the case when soap actors take to the stage, he played a cartoonified version of the character for which we know him. The other two, lesser known, actors, Julia Chan and Hadley Fraser, were far more West-End-assured in their roles, Chan standing out in particular.
There was a lot of exposition, which made us desperately just want something to happen! There was a séance interrupted, giving another nod to the fact it is set in the present, by one of the character’s mobile phone sounding. The séance was probably simultaneously being done better just up the road in “Blithe Spirit”! And there was a lot of arguing about whether ghosts do or do not exist including some rather clichéd – even hackneyed – anecdotes. In fact for those of us experienced in ghost plays and movies, the whole play was cliché filled including a (strangely brief) thunderstorm that would have made Hammer Films proud! But, however much I felt it had all been done before, I cannot deny there were audible gasps around where I was sitting as the climax played out (my lips are sealed!) and the cast received a standing ovation at the end.
Generally, the story would make a great one-act play but was rather stretched out to fill its two hour (including interval) timeslot. I’m not sure how long it will last in the West End but it was a good evening out, and being loved by the audience, I predict that this will become an amateur society favourite in a few years.
- : admin
- : 11/08/2021