Yahoo News Motherhood, booze and horror... a night out in Salford for those who can't wait for Halloween
Hot on the heels of a successful West End run, and notable for its starry cast members, Danny Robins' award-winning thriller: 2.22 A Ghost Story, is back at the Lowry tonight as part of its UK tour.
Anyone familiar with Robins' hit BBC podcasts, Uncanny and the Battersea Poltergeist, will have high expectations of what promises to be no ordinary ghost story. But will the performance live up to those?
The story centres on Jenny, an angst-ridden new mum, convinced that she and her husband Sam's new house is haunted by a presence that manifests in her daughter's room at the exact same time of 2.22am every morning. Sam however is unconvinced, to say the least, so the couple invite their old friend, Lauren and her new partner, Ben to dinner, to see for themselves.
Fiona Wade, of TV's Emmerdale fame, plays Jenny well as a nervous wreck, frustrated and angry at her husband's refusal to believe his wife's account of the ghostly goings-on.
George Rainsford as Sam is also suitably smug and irritating, mansplaining the situation, to the annoyance of Lauren (Vera Chok) and her new builder beau Ben (Jay McGuiness, vocalist from band The Wanted) who Sam looks down on for being working class.
There is clearly an unresolved situation between former university pals Sam and Lauren, which becomes apparent as the latter gets steadily sozzled as the night goes on. Add cheeky chappy Ben to the mix and this all makes for a fascinatingly febrile atmosphere.
The production does feel, it has to be said, a little gimmicky, and although, given the genre, you expect it to be hammy, the constant hysteria does become somewhat wearing and means you miss some lines of dialogue here and there. The constant swearing too is not offensive so much as feeling a bit try-hard, and a bit unrealistic at a mostly middle-class dinner party.
These are small beefs however and as the action moves on, we see that the play has more dimensions than your average ghost story. We get a decent dollop of humour from the interactions between Jenny and cheeky chappie Ben, played engagingly and with ease by McGuiness. His character also provides us with a rather moving social commentary on rich and poor.
All four characters play their parts well and storywise there are a couple of clever red herrings to throw you off the scent. The production has all the requisite jump-in-your seat moments and there is an ingenious twist at the end.
All in all, it's a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend a grey summer's evening for those of us who can't wait until Halloween to get our spooky fix!
