2:22 A Ghost Story Playhouse Theatre Edinburgh 26th May 2026 Review
2:22 A Ghost Story is at the Playhouse Theatre Edinburgh this week (Mon 25 to Sat 30 May) and this show, which has already been a West End hit, was also pulling in the crowds here tonight for their trip into the supernatural world of ghosts. We never, it seems, as people lose that need to be told a spooky story and be a little bit scared along the way.
What strikes you immediately as you enter the theatre is that the 2.22 stage set was obviously designed for a smaller stage than the Playhouse Theatre as it only takes up the centre of this venue’s very large stage (one of the biggest in the UK). This type of show really works best in a smaller theatre with a more intimate feel to it, but it is obviously selling far more tickets than such a venue could accommodate. This of course means that that always difficult job of scaring an audience becomes even more difficult in a venue of this size, particularly when you only have a limited number of sound and light effects at your disposal. These were though clearly enough for many in this audience tonight.
This very well designed single room set by Anna Fleischle follows a basic rule of theatre - keep everything in one room if possible - and it works well here as 2.22 also has good dramatic theatre at its core with a narrative that has more layers to the relationships between the four characters on stage than just a simple horror story format. For that horror story, this show does fall back on many over-used clichés, including the baby in the bedroom. The use of these plot tricks though is well used here.
Without giving any of what happens in this show away, Sam (James Bye) and Jenny (Shvorne Marks) have moved into an old house which they have completely renovated. Strange things have, however, started to happen, every time in the early hours of the morning – 2.22 am. It is almost as if the house itself is starting to fight against their new presence in it. Sam, the logical man of science, will have none of Jenny's beliefs in ghosts or the supernatural. Everything that has been happening comes to a head one evening when the couple have their first guests to their new home, Ben (Grant Kilburn) and Lauren (Natalie Casey). We, the audience, follow the four of them as the night turns into an exploration of the possible supernatural events that are now becoming all too regular in this house. Along the way, a few (perhaps too many), stock tricks of writers’ trade are used here, many which viewers of film and television ghost stories will recognise for what they are - diversions.
Despite these little diversions, 2.22 is a well crafted narrative by Danny Robins (writer), and it is the tightness and layering of this script that allows the atmosphere of tension in this story to build, whilst also unlocking some of the personal back stories of these four characters on stage. With this depth of detail, and a skilled cast as we have here, the groundwork has been set for a dramatic work of theatre that could easily stand on its own two feet without the ghost story element at all. Sound and visuals are a big part of the "scare them in their seats" element of this show, but even the pulse pounding rhythm of "Angel" by Massive Attack, did little in that sense for me tonight. Overall though, Matthew Dunster (Director) and Gabriel Vega Weissman (Co-director), along with a very good technical team, do their job here of swiftly pulling an audience into this story, into this room, and keeping them there for the whole show.
It is impossible to write more than an outline of this show as a review without giving too much away, but 2.22 has many elements in it that you really have to pay attention to. The devil really is in the detail here, and so many things do not become obvious until the final, almost Agatha Christie crime story reveal towards the end of this story.
Review by Tom King (c) 2026
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
What strikes you immediately as you enter the theatre is that the 2.22 stage set was obviously designed for a smaller stage than the Playhouse Theatre as it only takes up the centre of this venue’s very large stage (one of the biggest in the UK). This type of show really works best in a smaller theatre with a more intimate feel to it, but it is obviously selling far more tickets than such a venue could accommodate. This of course means that that always difficult job of scaring an audience becomes even more difficult in a venue of this size, particularly when you only have a limited number of sound and light effects at your disposal. These were though clearly enough for many in this audience tonight.
This very well designed single room set by Anna Fleischle follows a basic rule of theatre - keep everything in one room if possible - and it works well here as 2.22 also has good dramatic theatre at its core with a narrative that has more layers to the relationships between the four characters on stage than just a simple horror story format. For that horror story, this show does fall back on many over-used clichés, including the baby in the bedroom. The use of these plot tricks though is well used here.
Without giving any of what happens in this show away, Sam (James Bye) and Jenny (Shvorne Marks) have moved into an old house which they have completely renovated. Strange things have, however, started to happen, every time in the early hours of the morning – 2.22 am. It is almost as if the house itself is starting to fight against their new presence in it. Sam, the logical man of science, will have none of Jenny's beliefs in ghosts or the supernatural. Everything that has been happening comes to a head one evening when the couple have their first guests to their new home, Ben (Grant Kilburn) and Lauren (Natalie Casey). We, the audience, follow the four of them as the night turns into an exploration of the possible supernatural events that are now becoming all too regular in this house. Along the way, a few (perhaps too many), stock tricks of writers’ trade are used here, many which viewers of film and television ghost stories will recognise for what they are - diversions.
Despite these little diversions, 2.22 is a well crafted narrative by Danny Robins (writer), and it is the tightness and layering of this script that allows the atmosphere of tension in this story to build, whilst also unlocking some of the personal back stories of these four characters on stage. With this depth of detail, and a skilled cast as we have here, the groundwork has been set for a dramatic work of theatre that could easily stand on its own two feet without the ghost story element at all. Sound and visuals are a big part of the "scare them in their seats" element of this show, but even the pulse pounding rhythm of "Angel" by Massive Attack, did little in that sense for me tonight. Overall though, Matthew Dunster (Director) and Gabriel Vega Weissman (Co-director), along with a very good technical team, do their job here of swiftly pulling an audience into this story, into this room, and keeping them there for the whole show.
It is impossible to write more than an outline of this show as a review without giving too much away, but 2.22 has many elements in it that you really have to pay attention to. The devil really is in the detail here, and so many things do not become obvious until the final, almost Agatha Christie crime story reveal towards the end of this story.
Review by Tom King (c) 2026
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com