2:22 A Ghost Story: Theatre Review

2:22 A Ghost Story is a new play that’s been really successful in the last few years. It’s sort of a ghost story – but maybe not what you’d expect from a ghost story. Here’s my 2:22 A Ghost Story theatre review.

Overview of 2:22 A Ghost Story

2:22 A Ghost Story has four main characters – two couples. It’s mainly based around a dinner party at one couple’s house, and the spooky, unexplained things that happen. My 2:22 A Ghost Story theatre review won’t give any spoilers. A big part of the enjoyment of watching this show is not knowing the ending – so I’ll leave that as a surprise!

The main two characters are Jenny and Sam, who are new parents. One night, at 2:22, Jenny is home alone – Sam is away on a business trip. And Jenny becomes aware of a ghostly presence in the house.

The evening, Lauren and Ben come over for dinner and drinks. They’re another couple, and Lauren is an old friend of Sam’s. The rest of the play is mostly dialogue between these four characters. It’s well-written dialogue, with some twists such as Lauren and Sam’s friendship being potentially slightly more than friends on Lauren’s side. The four actors move around a lot during the show – it’s not just them sat around talking. And throughout the evening, there are a few unexplained things that happen.

They’re waiting for 2:22, because Jenny wants them all to witness the strange things that have been happening at 2:22 on previous evenings. There’s a lot of debate and scepticism about ghosts, but the ghostly things happening around them add an extra dimension to the show.

What I liked about 2:22 A Ghost Story

I really enjoyed this play. I thought the 4 main characters were good, and the play was well-written. The play mostly takes place in one room in one evening – in Jenny and Sam’s house for their drinks and dinner party. But despite there not being lots of different locations, the play never felt boring. The constant dialogue was engaging.

I enjoyed the feeling of knowing that something suspicious was going on, but not being sure what. I was constantly looking out for clues in the show and trying to work things out. But I didn’t even get close to working out what the final twist was. I was really surprised and shocked by the ending. And I really liked that. It made the whole show quite memorable, and it’s definitely something I’ll remember for a long time. The twist is also something that makes you think back over the whole play. So afterwards, you end up thinking back to things that happened with your knew knowledge and noticing things you hadn’t noticed at the time. It’s a good play to go to see with a friend, so you can discuss it afterwards and point things out to each other.

What I wasn’t so sure about

I enjoyed this show, but I’m not sure I completely loved it. I was expecting slightly more of a ghost story, given the title of the show. But what I mainly remember is four characters having a dinner party, with a few ghostly things happening, and then the big twist at the end. The ghostly things happening throughout the show weren’t actually that scary or ghostly. I think I took notice of them because of the title of the play saying it’s a ghost story – but nothing was that impressive.

The show tried to create some artificial jump scares with red lights and a scream soundtrack noise. However, I wasn’t super keen on this. It would happen randomly, but not as part of the scene that was happening on stage. It was more like a way to create a quick break between different scenes. The actors would be talking, then when they got to the end of a scene there would be the sudden darkness, red lights and scream noise. And then the lights would come back up and we’d carry on with the next scene with the actors just talking normally. I felt like these jump scares were just a bit too artificial. If a jump scare was part of the play, then that would have been fine and would have been good. But it was just randomly having darkness/red lights/loud scream for no reason related to the plot, and then carry on.

I’d definitely have liked there to have been more things like jump scares as part of the actual show. It would have made the show seem more ghostly and more scary – and not just creating artificial scares. Overall, the show is basically a dinner party with 4 people, and then a bit of a twist at the end. It’s still a well written play with good dialogue and acting so it’s still enjoyable. But it’s not the scary ghost story that is implied in the title.

Would I recommend 2:22 A Ghost Story

I’d definitely recommend going to see 2:22 A Ghost Story. It’s an enjoyable play, with good dialogue and good acting. And there’s a bit of suspense throughout as you’re seeing a few ghostly things, and expecting there to be some twist or something revealed. However, if you’re expecting a super scary ghostly play, then you’ll be disappointed.