Writer: Danny Robins
Director: Matthew Dunster
Currently on its third engagement and fourth cast since its premiere in August 2021, 2:22 A Ghost Story fails to deliver anything more than clichés nestled into a slow-paced and bland domestic story.
Jenny (Laura Whitmore) is at home with her baby, awaiting the arrival of her husband, Sam (Felix Scott), who has been away for a few days. Jenny and Sam are playing host to their friend Lauren (Tamsin Carroll) and her new boyfriend Ben (Matt Willis) for the evening, and over dinner, Jenny confesses that she thinks their new house is haunted, after hearing footsteps and crying over the baby monitor at 2:22 every night Sam has been away. She convinces the group to stay up to witness the events, and throughout the evening, unusual things begin to happen. Skeptics Sam and Lauren (an academic and psychiatrist respectively) try to explain away the strange happenings in the house, but supernatural-believer Ben pushes Jenny’s hysterical paranoia to the edge, with the characters turning on each other and creating a feverish madness towards the climax.
For the most part, 2:22 is a story of couples coming to blows, and Act I doesn’t offer much to the narrative beyond typical dinner party conversation and the occasional joke or snarky comment from Sam. Act II seeks to improve this, with a lot more action taking place on stage, however, there is still an overarching element of unstimulating dialogue. While the domestic drama is somewhat enjoyable to watch, the horror elements of the play fail to contain anything unique, being a collected jumble of stereotypical characters and classically overused tropes, such as motion-sense lights, baby monitors, low lighting, and thunderstorms. Even the ending is bordering on cliché. Combined with moments of extreme melodrama, the play sometimes feels more like a parody of a horror story than actually committed to the genre.
The scare factor of the show doesn’t seem to have been well-crafted with the audience in mind. The use of random and unnecessary jumpscares throughout the piece, most of which are irrelevant to the plot, repeatedly dissipates any tension that has built up, and cheapens the effect of any legitimate scares. As a result, the climax of the story feels bland and inconsequential from the lack of tension.
In her West End debut, Laura Whitmore unfortunately fails to “wow” as Jenny, but is able to hold her presence on stage. Although well-supported by the rest of the cast, the integral role that Jenny plays in the narrative is hindered by irregular pacing and overly-heightened dialogue.
Each cast member demonstrates the various elements of their character well, with Tamsin Carroll and Matt Willis showcasing their comedic talents with great skill and subtlety throughout. However, Felix Scott dominates as Sam, delivering a compelling performance in every scene, as both the snarky skeptic and the concerned family man.
2:22 A Ghost Story struggles to live up to the expectations of its name, delivering something comparable to a drama of inactivity with a few jumps thrown in.
Runs until 8 January 2023
4 Comments
Completely disagree. Laura Witmore was fantastic and I was gripped throughout, would thoroughly recommend.
I agree with the review . I didn’t rate the play atall. Laura W’s over acting was awful! Excessive cupboard opening & shutting, sit down stand up, pace around, run to the stairs,open some more cupboards, unaturally dramatic hand gestures & emotionless delivivery of ‘lines’. Totally unconvincing as a character ,& the husband & wife thing was farcical & annoying. I felt like I was watching a school drama club play! It was so bad it was funny! & Yes the screams & loud bangs were silly.
Matt W & Tamsin C were ok though.
I agree, hammy acting!!!
I really enjoyed the play, I don’t think the scares throughout detracted from the climax at all. On the contrary, this was one of the very few plays or films to give me a real frights. I found myself counting down with the clock. My only criticism is that Laura Whitmore does indeed over- act. Her reactions were a bit much. The other three were excellent, and you’d never guess that Matt Willis was anything other than a professional actor. He’s great (and gorgeous!).