Writer: Levi Holloway
Director: Felix Barrett
“Places aren’t haunted, people are,” so starts the play Paranormal Activity. Intended as a standalone chiller based on the franchise of the same name. Since 2007, there have been seven celluloid iterations of the horror shocker.
A couple, James (James Bye) and Lou ( Hannah Sinclair Robinson) escape (an initially only alluded to) past trauma back in Chicago, and attempt to make a fresh start in the London suburbs. It doesn’t take long for their ideal home to turn into a house of horrors.
Every scary movie trope, coupled with clever stage craft and artful illusion, has been utilised here to great effect: doors open and close by themselves, lights flicker and black out, there are spooky silences and ear-splitting auditory scares and a whole heap of misdirection. The tension ramps up insidiously and to brilliant effect.
Levi Holloway has peppered his script with laughs – there’s humour interspersed with the horror, allowing the scares to land with a jolt. It cleverly gets us to question whether the terror is real or imagined.
Fly Davies’ two-storey set of the suburban home allows us a parallel view of the shenanigans both up and downstairs. It cleverly functions as a character itself.
Gareth Fry’s soundscape adds to the creeping feeling of dread that seeps through the whole production, as does Anna Watson’s lighting, which includes tiny detail such as the lights from passing cars and emergency vehicles travelling by the living room windows. The entire auditorium remains in inky black darkness for large parts of the action, no illuminated exit signs, no safety lights dimmed lights on entrance – all contributing to the chilly atmosphere.
Largely a two-hander both Bye and Sinclair Robinson deliver measured performances as the tormented pair. They are ably supported by Jo Castleton as psychic Cotgrave and Caroline Faber as James’ mother Carolanne.
That there are plot holes and not a great deal of character development, is entirely forgivable as the entire experience more than makes up for any faults. Thoroughly entertaining, it is an excellent palate cleanser in a smorgasbord of musical theatre. Well worth watching.
Runs until 26 September 2026 | Image: Johan Persson 9from original London production)
