Scott Purvis-Armour reviews a production which ‘culminates in a genuinely surprising twist’.
With the nights drawing darker and supermarket pumpkins popping up next to reduced-to-clear beach balls, the twilight between summer and autumn is growing dimmer. The witching hour is close at hand, and the King’s Theatre has swung open the gates of its mausoleum for some early Halloween horror in 2:22: A Ghost Story.
But this is not the gory story of an operatic Phantom shattering a chandelier or a bandaged Jacob Marley rattling his chains from eternity - this is the supernatural of the suburban.
Podcaster Danny Robbins’ play follows new parents Jennifer and Sam as they renovate a widower’s house in Greater London. But each night at 2:22am, their gentrifying becomes terrifying as the fraught family experience events that threaten to destroy their relationships and their lives.
And that, ghost hunters, is all that dares to be shared on the matter of plot…
Robbins’ surprisingly funny script summons Abigail’s Party and The Amityville Horror, asking some interesting questions about the nature of life and death, and the bony bridges between the two. It is at once a seance of cynicism where non-believers try to explain away ghosts using the Laws of Thermodynamics and believers compare ghosts to refugees, trying to cross over to our world for safety.
It is a pity, therefore, that the actors often deal with these pithy issues like scenes from Eastenders. Following pop stars Cheryl [Tweedy] and Lily Allen, documentary maker Stacey Dooley is likeable as a mother fighting to be heard in a world of sceptics. Whilst she doesn’t quite have the command of a more accomplished actor, her dropped ‘H’s give this ‘aunted ‘ouse story a relatable warmth of character. Kevin Clifton, too, is endearing as husband Sam, gesturing to the gods with humour but, similarly, not quite achieving the pathos necessary to tighten the tension and make this a truly effective horror show.
The true terror of the night comes from the sound and lighting desks. The jump scares jut out of the text like a skeleton’s vertebrae, deafeningly loud and sudden but undeniably startling. As the action climbs the gallows towards “2:22”, the suspense grows but never achieves the overwhelming theatrical dread of productions like The Woman in Black. Instead, it culminates in a genuinely surprising twist which has been blackly written into every page of the script like a death certificate.
On the page, 2:22: A Ghost Story is an exercise (or “exorcise”) in tension which builds skilfully towards a revelation worthy of Roald Dahl’s greatest Tales of the Unexpected. In performance, however, its acting choices and direction push this piece towards “The Phantom of the Soap Opera.”
Does it matter? Not especially. Everyone enjoys a scream on a ghost train, and no one expects Michael Myers to be played by Michael Caine.
2.22—A Ghost Story performs at the King’s Theatre in Glasgow until August 30, 2025. It continues its UK tour, with future stops in Edinburgh and Aberdeen. For further details, go to the production’s website.
Photo by Helen Murray.
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