2:22 A Ghost Story – Review

Last Updated on November 16, 2024

Danny Robbin’s masterpiece of a play is set for another outstanding run:

Do you believe in ghosts? This question could divide opinion at almost every dinner party, family get-together, or office social. Some bloke will inevitably mention that his nan’s best mate’s dog once saw a ghost, and was so shaken by the whole affair he couldn’t eat kibble for a week. Combine that with someone so logical they’ve read the entire works of Richard Dawkins and you’ve got yourself a barney. Or, in writer Danny Robbin’s case, dramatic gold.

The press office certainly knew what they were doing by having the press night for the third re-staging of 2:22 A Ghost Story on Friday the 13^th. It made the intimate Criterion Theatre feel all the spookier, in anticipation of one of the West End’s most fiercely acclaimed productions. On stage, the instantly recognisable large black and red digital clock hangs over the door frame and spins down through its numbers like a never-ending slot machine. It takes a while to make you feel uneasy, but there is something off about the room. Designed by Anna Fleischle, swatches of paint are laid out against bare brick walls, a fresh set of black double doors lead out to a chilling alleyway garden, and new kitchen cabinets provide the domestic glare against older, worn furniture. The set feels mundane but disjointed, it’s certainly no cobwebbed ‘Woman In Black’ number, and perfectly teased out the production’s turbulence.

2:22 follows the dinner party thrown by Sam (Tom Felton) and Jenny (Mandip Gil), for Sam’s old university mate Lauren (Beatriz Romilly) and her new boyfriend Ben (Sam Swainsbury). After chewing over the tension in the room, it transpires that Jenny believes their baby’s nursery to be haunted. Jenny’s logical non-believer of a husband, Sam, repeatedly tries to convince her otherwise. Meanwhile, Lauren, besotted with Sam, gets drunker and drunker, finding solace for her un-returned affections at the bottom of her wine glass. Her surplus boyfriend Ben, a spiritual sort, irritates Sam with his stories of pub exorcisms, to the point of setting off an altercation.

The brilliance of Robbin’s script, though spooky and scarily witty, is the thought and detail he has put into each of the characters, making them intrinsically complex, difficult, but each of them relatable. Robbin has concocted the perfect argument inside someone’s own brain, with the help of director Matthew Dunster, and has successfully popped it on the West End stage.

Tom Felton delivers an exceptional performance as Sam. A man who has revelled in the control logic has afforded him, he has an explanation for everything, apart from the increasingly scary happenings around him. He is well matched by Sam Swainbury’s performance as Ben. Bitingly angsty about Sam’s indignance towards him, he was the most charming of the lot and had the best gags throughout. Mandip Gil gave a good performance as Jenny, a role that has previously been played by Lily Allen and can certainly belt out a convincing scream. Beatriz Romilly played Lauren lightly, but still had the precision to secure the emotional gut punches.

Save the occasional jump scare – exemplified, on the night I attended, by the woman next to me attempting to take flight – 2:22 A Ghost Story is a drama thriller rather than a really scary story. The tale is neatly summed up by a line from Natasha Lyone’s hit series Russian Doll, a Rabbi’s assertion that ‘buildings aren’t haunted, people are’. The idea that our feelings and experiences cannot always be properly understood, is what makes this performance a truly interesting piece of theatre.

2:22 A Ghost Story at The Criterion Theatre

218-223 Piccadilly,
St. James’s,
London
W1J 9HR

Website: https://222aghoststory.com/

Run time: approx. 2 hours Including an interval

Performance Schedule: 7 May 2022 – 4 September 2022