2:22 A Ghost Story

Written by Danny Robins and premiered in 2021 to critical acclaim, 2:22 A Ghost Story, tells of four friends, Sam and Jenny with pals Lauren and Ben, who sit down to dinner in Sam and Jenny’s new home. During the evening the conversation turns to the strange phenomenon occurring in the house that are making Jenny believe that her new home is haunted. As Jenny says “There’s something in our house. I hear it every night, at the same time. As the believers and the sceptics argue their respective cases, they eventually agree to stay awake until 2:22, when the haunting begins, to find out just what (if anything) actually happens.

Jenny (Fiona Wade) is a weary and stressed new Mum whilst her husband Sam, (George Rainsford) a somewhat pedantic astronomer, has a logical explanation for anything and everything including the supernatural. Sam’s characterization is the perfect foil for his increasingly hysterical wife. Lauren (Vera Chok) a psychiatrist, is an old university friend of Sam’s whilst her partner Ben (Jay McGuiness) is a builder come general tradesman who is a salt of the earth type of character. As Lauren consumes copious amounts of alcohol throughout the evening, she becomes more and more candid whilst Ben appears as the only straightforward and practical character of the four.

The alleged haunted room is the baby’s bedroom, out of sight but connected via the baby monitor and to add to the mix there is more than a hint of martial trouble and strive.

The directors Matthew Dunster and Isabel Marr, together with their creative team of set designer Anna Fleischle, lighting by Lucy Carter and sound by Ian Dickinson have created an impassioned piece full of atmosphere and suspense. The complete tale is enacted on the one set where the attention to detail is superb, including the digital clock which moves inexorably towards the dreaded time of 2:22.

The play is both clever and humorous and has a plentiful dollop of foul language. However, it also explores some fascinating ideas re ghosts in general and the supernatural in particular posing theoretical questions to which no one can claim to know the answers. There are several scary moments making you jump as you are taken completely by surprise and there’s a final twist in the tale which you would never ever guess was coming.

Its difficult to write anything more as to do so would give the game away and completely spoil your evening. Get to the Lyceum, you won’t be disappointed!