A confusing ghost story that tries to take on too much in too little time
The Enfield Haunting, written by Paul Unwin and directed by Angus Jackson, stars Catherine Tate as Peggy, a single mother, whose council house is allegedly haunted by a poltergeist. The play is based on true events from the 1970s – that is, the story of an allegedly haunted house in Enfield that drew a lot of media coverage at the time.
The play gets off to a frantic start. We’re introduced to a household in turmoil as Peggy’s neighbour Rey (Mo Sesay) arrives uninvited to impose his opinions on her family, what they’re saying to the media, and other unimportant neighbourly matters. His arrival is followed by Peggy’s three children, who barge through the door full of complaints about how they’re being treated at school. Finally they’re joined by David Threlfall’s Mr Gross, a paranormal investigator working on their case – who turns up unexpectedly with three ice creams for the children. Before long, middle child Janet starts behaving like a string puppet in a hurricane and we’re introduced to our ghost.
Through the opening scene the audience is forced to work hard to understand the chatter and arguments between our characters in order to fill in the blanks with what’s actually going on. This a problem which persists throughout the play, even as we skip ahead to the night time to where the majority of the ghostly action unfolds.
Throughout the scattering of paranormal events, oft-possessed daughter Janet (Ella Schrey-Yeats) and her older, abrasive sister Margaret (Grace Molony) alternate between fear, and suggesting that they’re making the whole thing up for a bit of fun. Mr Gross, suggests at one point that he’s sure there’s a ‘logical explanation’ for everything, but shortly after is hypothesising about the reason they’re joined by the poltergeist. These interactions would make more sense if we weren’t joining the characters months into the ghost bothering them. It’s these inconsistencies in the script that fail to connect us as the audience to what the characters are experiencing.
We also never really get a consistent sense that any of the characters are deeply scared – Tate’s Peggy spends more time irritated by the ghost than afraid of it, and everyone simply seems bemused when a fireplace is ripped from the wall.
On the surface level, there is some enjoyment to be had from the ghost story. The way we’re shown the ghost itself is also well technically executed – this serves up some suitably fun jump scares and chilling moments. The cast all put in solid performances through the challenging script, Schrey-Yeats plays the part of a possessed girl well, Molony and Noah Leggott (playing youngest son Jimmy) also excel.
Unfortunately though, the play suffers from being only 75 minutes long. With more time we’d have more space to develop things at a slower pace, which wouldn’t leave the script feeling so convoluted. The characters would have had more time to evolve their opinions on the circumstances without appearing inconsistent. It would also have benefitted from being simpler. The motives and logistics of the ghost (for want of a better spoiler free term) are quite confusing and the final resolution for all the characters feels rushed in the final 15 minutes.
There’s the bones of something good there somewhere, but I’d struggle to recommend this one in its current iteration unless you’re a fanatic of ghost stories on stage, but also want an early night.