Haunted house drama ‘2:22 – A Ghost Story’ has been the big West End success of the post-pandemic era, running for about a billion mini-seasons and hoovering up all manner of improbable celebrities into its cast over the last couple of years.
It’s a good time, then, to bring a second haunted house story to Theatreland. And this one’s a little different. ‘The Enfield Haunting’ by Paul Unfield is a dramatisation of a true story from the ’70s, wherein the Hodgesons, a working-class family living in a north London housing estate, found their flat plagued by apparent poltergeist activity for over 18 months.
Unfield’s play is set in 1978, towards the end of the haunting, as ghost hunter Maurice Grosse visits the house to attend to the family’s apparently possessed 16-year-old daughter Janet. You can look at the Wikipedia page for the haunting if you want a general idea what happened, but it all seems fascinatingly ambiguous and ripe for a serious psychological deep dive.
Big names Catherine Tate and David Threlfall will star in so far undisclosed roles in this production that’s directed by heavyweight RSC veteral Angus Jackson.
