1 – 9 September
I’m laying my cards firmly on the table in saying the main thrust of the play is an intellectual and emotional tussle between the credulous and the rational. The battle lines are drawn up between new parents, Sam (Nathaniel Curtis) and Jenny (Louisa Lytton) who spend most of their time in thrall to the baby monitor, ears pricked for the slightest whine of discomfort from the nursery. The first grains of irritation from Sam at Jenny’s willingness to rush out at the slightest murmur set the scene for the growing friction.
When Sam’s long standing university friend, Lauren (Charlene Boyd) turns up with her new boyfriend, a builder and somewhat chippy East Londoner, Ben (Joe Absolom) Sam’s hackles rise at his belief in the supernatural which chimes in with Jenny’s insistence that the house has a mysterious, ghostly presence that is somehow associated with their baby. Their old-stock, East London house has undergone some gentrification and Jenny is convinced that this has something to do with the strange inexplicable goings on. Troubled or malign spirits are fingered as the culprits. This is too much for Sam – who has been flagged up by Lauren as Mr Rationality, a reputation he gathered at university. He sets about pointing out all the possible rational explanations for the kind of phenomena that Jenny, a lapsed ‘believer’ under his influence, is now as an apparent apostate to reason with the encouragement of Ben, proposing as being of supernatural origin. The guests are persuaded to stay late, that is until 2:22, the time at which the presence is supposed to visit.
A large digital clock on the set ticks down the seconds, keeping us in some kind of suspense. Flashing lights and scary sounds – amplified screeches from urban foxes – offer some cheap thrills, but the author (Danny Robins) has a joker up his sleeve, which he plays at the dénoument. More than that I cannot say without breaching the spoiler code, other than that it seemed little more than a deus ex machina and therefore, for this sceptic at least, a little unsatisfying.
Each character is clinging to something in their past and as these echoes play out, the actors draw the battle lines with clarity under direction from Matthew Dunster and Isabel Marr.
Some good acting and stage trickery keep the debate alive to the end and make it a play that ghost story fans will not want to miss.
★★★☆☆ Graham Wyles, 7 September 2023
Photo credit: Johan Persson
