2.22 A Ghost Story Festival Theatre Edinburgh September 26th 2023 Review
2:22 A Ghost Story is at the Festival Theatre Edinburgh this week (Tue 26 to Sat 30 September) and this show, which has already been a West End hit, was also drawing in the crowds here tonight for their trip into the unknown world of the paranormal.
What strikes you visually as you enter the theatre is that this show was obviously designed for a smaller stage than the Festival Theatre, and this very well designed single room set by Anna Fleischle would have been perfect for The King’s Theatre when it re-opens. Having said this though, this is a well written, dialogue driven work of theatre, and Danny Robins (writer) and Matthew Dunster and Isabel Marr (directors) tell and frame this story so well that you are completely pulled into this room and you very quickly focus entirely on what is happening in this room. This is really a perfect show for theatre production, one single room setting and a small cast.
Without giving any of what happens in this show away, Sam (Nathaniel Curtis) and Jenny (Louisa Lytton) have moved into an old house which they have completely renovated, but strange things are happening and Jenny feels that there is something or someone that should not be there in this house with them, every time in the early hours of the morning – 2.22 am. Sam, a very logical man of science, will have none of her beliefs in ghosts or the supernatural. Things come to a head with the arrival of their first guests to their new home, Ben (Joe Absolom) and Lauren (Charlene Boyd) and together all four are well cast for this story as it develops throughout the night.
Stories about supernatural events are perhaps the most difficult of all to get to work properly in a theatre as it is so easy to make everything predictable and a little camp, and to be fair there are a few moments of both here plus “scare the audience” moments that are a little bit over-used and visually not surprising or scary at all. Thankfully the real depth of this supernatural story is in its writing and not its visual effects.
What saves 2:22 from being just another run of the mill ghost story is its multi-layered story line and well-defined characters, and the interplay between them and often the tensions created with this are what really makes this story work. In 2:22 that always difficult subject of faith or science is dealt with well and the gentrification of old working class neighbourhoods is skilfully handled. We even have our story of a true love lost and never found again.
2:22 A Ghost Story is a show that you really have to pay attention to as both the script and certain scenes of how some characters inter-act with others and this room are only obvious after the final reveal in the last few minutes of this show. Things are not what they seem, both natural and supernatural, and I have no intention of telling you any more in this review as this would completely spoil this story - beginning, end and middle - for you. This is one of those few shows where you really have to watch it in its entirety then process everything that has happened again once you leave the theatre to realise just how skilfully written, directed and performed this work really is.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
What strikes you visually as you enter the theatre is that this show was obviously designed for a smaller stage than the Festival Theatre, and this very well designed single room set by Anna Fleischle would have been perfect for The King’s Theatre when it re-opens. Having said this though, this is a well written, dialogue driven work of theatre, and Danny Robins (writer) and Matthew Dunster and Isabel Marr (directors) tell and frame this story so well that you are completely pulled into this room and you very quickly focus entirely on what is happening in this room. This is really a perfect show for theatre production, one single room setting and a small cast.
Without giving any of what happens in this show away, Sam (Nathaniel Curtis) and Jenny (Louisa Lytton) have moved into an old house which they have completely renovated, but strange things are happening and Jenny feels that there is something or someone that should not be there in this house with them, every time in the early hours of the morning – 2.22 am. Sam, a very logical man of science, will have none of her beliefs in ghosts or the supernatural. Things come to a head with the arrival of their first guests to their new home, Ben (Joe Absolom) and Lauren (Charlene Boyd) and together all four are well cast for this story as it develops throughout the night.
Stories about supernatural events are perhaps the most difficult of all to get to work properly in a theatre as it is so easy to make everything predictable and a little camp, and to be fair there are a few moments of both here plus “scare the audience” moments that are a little bit over-used and visually not surprising or scary at all. Thankfully the real depth of this supernatural story is in its writing and not its visual effects.
What saves 2:22 from being just another run of the mill ghost story is its multi-layered story line and well-defined characters, and the interplay between them and often the tensions created with this are what really makes this story work. In 2:22 that always difficult subject of faith or science is dealt with well and the gentrification of old working class neighbourhoods is skilfully handled. We even have our story of a true love lost and never found again.
2:22 A Ghost Story is a show that you really have to pay attention to as both the script and certain scenes of how some characters inter-act with others and this room are only obvious after the final reveal in the last few minutes of this show. Things are not what they seem, both natural and supernatural, and I have no intention of telling you any more in this review as this would completely spoil this story - beginning, end and middle - for you. This is one of those few shows where you really have to watch it in its entirety then process everything that has happened again once you leave the theatre to realise just how skilfully written, directed and performed this work really is.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com