An evening of lukewarm ghostly surprises that don’t bear up under scrutiny
Walking into the Liverpool Empire Theatre to see Danny Robins’ immensely popular 2:22 A Ghost Story on its 2026 tour, the atmosphere is tense and expectant. The stage is ready for us to see: curtain up on the open-plan kitchen and living space that serves as the sole setting for this claustrophobic four-person play. Anna Fleischle’s set design captures a suitably creepy vision of a house that has recently changed ownership, with half-painted doors, stripped and stained-looking walls, and a rapidly counting digital clock reminding us that the time for haunting is approaching.
With this run co-directed by Olivier-nominated Matthew Dunster alongside Gabriel Vega Weissman, 2:22 A Ghost Story has been wildly popular since its 2021 opening in the West End, winning Best New Play at the WhatsOnStage awards that year, as well as being nominated for three Olivier awards. An eclectic mix of big names like Cheryl Cole and Tom Felton have made up the four-person cast on national and global tours, with James Bye, Natalie Casey, Grant Kilburn and Shvorne Marks sharing the stage for this run.
The first three minutes of the play are genuinely tense, with only Shvorne Marks as Jenny – a new mother home alone with her baby – onstage. Living in a house recently sold by a widow, she believes she is being haunted at 2:22 by a ghost who poses a threat to her baby. The scene is fraught with the fear of unseen things triggering motion sensor lights in the garden through bare screen doors, and with breathing coming through the baby monitor. But after that, it falls apart.
The play follows Jenny and her husband Ben (James Bye) as they host a small housewarming dinner party for old university friend Lauren (Natalie Casey), a classic psychiatrist with mental health issues, and her new boyfriend Ben (Grant Kilburn), who serves largely as comic relief. Rather than a haunting thriller, the plot is driven by the four characters arguing about the existence of ghosts and the turmoil of their personal relationships. The play rather gives the impression that it thinks it is very clever and is saying something meaningful about religion, life, and loss, while rehashing the same very standard conversations that we have all, no doubt, also had with friends several times. Jenny thinks she’s being haunted. Husband Ben is a scientist and doesn’t believe her. Ben’s mother held seances. Lauren wants another glass of wine. Repeat for the next two hours.
All the genuine tension and fear are gone, replaced by cheap jump scares; the same scream and plunge to black marks every new scene, even though nothing frightening ever really happens. Even the set loses its spookiness when the characters spend the whole evening remarking on how nice and newly done-up the house looks. It doesn’t, which instead left me wondering whether the creepy set was more of an accident than a choice.
As the clock edges towards 2:22, any sense of mounting tension quietly drains away, and it becomes increasingly clear there is neither the time nor the substance for a truly frightening or satisfying payoff. When the moment finally arrives, the much-teased revelation lands with a muted sense of disappointment, closer to a shrug than a shock.
Shvorne Marks delivers the standout performance as Jenny, providing the production’s emotional anchor and most sympathetic presence. The remaining characters prove largely unlikeable, and the performances lack distinction. Natalie Casey’s unconvincing American accent further undermines Lauren, diminishing an already verbose and overbearing character.
Writer Danny Robins drew on interviews with people reporting paranormal encounters, yet the resulting play feels pedestrian and clichéd. Its twists and turns lack originality and fail to withstand closer scrutiny, falling short of the intrigue suggested by its real-life inspirations.
However, the audience obediently laughed and gasped at the right moments, and seemed to receive the play very well. It remains popular and generally acclaimed, so although I was not compelled by it, if you like an evening of jumpscares and arguing couples, it could still be the play for you.