2:22 A Ghost Story
Apollo Theatre
May 2023
Do you believe in Ghosts?
A centuries old question. Logically and scientifically, of course ghosts don’t exist but most of us have experiences that we can’t explain; are these experiences only in our imagination or is there something more?
This question is hotly debated at Jenny and Sam’s first dinner party in their new house. They’ve invited Sam’s university friend Lauren and her new boyfriend Ben round for dinner, but Jenny is on edge. While Sam has been working away she has been hearing eery noises in their baby daughter’s bedroom at the same time each night. She is convinced the house is haunted, but the pragmatic Sam scorns her. The tension between them bubbles over and it is decided that the four of will wait until 2.22 to see if the ghostly noises happen once more.
Writer Danny Robins has obviously a keen interest in the paranormal as he cleverly works questions and possible explanations into his script. As the night draws on, the quartet hotly debate, the existence of ghosts with a drink fuelled séance and ghostly quiz. As the clock ticks down to 2.22 the tension rises.
2:22 A Ghost Story opened shortly after lock-down and since then has played at the Noël Coward, Gielgud, Criterion and The Lyric Theatres before recently opening at its current home at the Apollo on Shaftsbury Avenue. The current cast all give strong performances as they take the audience on a journey questioning what they truly believe.
Jaime Winstone plays the terrified first-time mother who we Jenny who whose life and values have altered within a week. The character of her unsympathetic know-it-all husband Sam (Clifford Samuel) is harder to warm to even though his rational that she is imagining things may be scientifically logical. Dinner guests psychiatrist Lauren (Sophia Bush) and her builder boyfriend Ben (Ricky Champ) are an unlikely couple but bring different perspectives to the whole debate. It is an ingenius mix of characters.
It is so refreshing to see a contemporary ghost story with serious debate and not one set in a bygone era. Whether you do believe in ghosts or not, 2:22, A Ghost Story will pose you questions and will make you jump in all the right places. The play’s verdict as to whether they exist? That would be a spoiler, go and see for yourself.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Reviewer: Sammi O’Neill
Photo: Helen Murray