Post by marion on Mar 28, 2024 19:04:39 GMT
To Richmond this afternoon in the rain, to see this touring version of the West End hit. It did very well there and was renowned for its novelty casting, starting off with Lily Allen in her first role and later Cheryl Cole. I think there were others too.
The premise is that Jenny, a new mum whose husband Sam is away, wakes every morning at 2:22 and senses a frightening, ghostly presence. They are doing up their large house in a part of London being gentrified and are very yuppy/ghastly however you look at it. He returns in time for a dinner party with his old friend Lauren and her builder boyfriend Ben. The discussion goes into the supernatural/ghosts and Sam is very rational and logical, Ben is accepting, Lauren a bit cynical, Jenny frightened. There is also quite a bit of niggle especially between Sam and Ben. The former thinks Ben is just a bit of rough, Ben thinks Sam is a patronising w*nker.
In this cast, Jenny is played by Fiona Wade from Emmerdale who I thought was the weakest of the four and too quiet; Lauren is Vera Chok from Hollyoaks who was generally good. The two standouts in this were Sam played by George Rainsford (Ethan from Casualty) and Ben played by Jay McGuinness. I have seen George before; he is exceptionally clear and he really played this part well. Jay had the bulk of the funny lines and had to play Ben as a bit of a cockney geezer, and he was also excellent. Definitely a win for the boys.
This is quite a short play, 50 minute acts and a 20 minute interval. It has loads of shocks, largely sound effects and my nerves were rather shredded by the end. I did not see the end coming because I had worked out a completely different, and wrong, conclusion. In fact I did have to Google it when I got home to make sure I understood it, and see what clues I had missed. All of them in fact! Well I spotted them but didn’t grasp the full significance. I really enjoyed the show and liked the fact that there were some good laughs in it as well as the nerve jangling. It was really warmly received by the Richmond audience, lots of cheers.
The premise is that Jenny, a new mum whose husband Sam is away, wakes every morning at 2:22 and senses a frightening, ghostly presence. They are doing up their large house in a part of London being gentrified and are very yuppy/ghastly however you look at it. He returns in time for a dinner party with his old friend Lauren and her builder boyfriend Ben. The discussion goes into the supernatural/ghosts and Sam is very rational and logical, Ben is accepting, Lauren a bit cynical, Jenny frightened. There is also quite a bit of niggle especially between Sam and Ben. The former thinks Ben is just a bit of rough, Ben thinks Sam is a patronising w*nker.
In this cast, Jenny is played by Fiona Wade from Emmerdale who I thought was the weakest of the four and too quiet; Lauren is Vera Chok from Hollyoaks who was generally good. The two standouts in this were Sam played by George Rainsford (Ethan from Casualty) and Ben played by Jay McGuinness. I have seen George before; he is exceptionally clear and he really played this part well. Jay had the bulk of the funny lines and had to play Ben as a bit of a cockney geezer, and he was also excellent. Definitely a win for the boys.
This is quite a short play, 50 minute acts and a 20 minute interval. It has loads of shocks, largely sound effects and my nerves were rather shredded by the end. I did not see the end coming because I had worked out a completely different, and wrong, conclusion. In fact I did have to Google it when I got home to make sure I understood it, and see what clues I had missed. All of them in fact! Well I spotted them but didn’t grasp the full significance. I really enjoyed the show and liked the fact that there were some good laughs in it as well as the nerve jangling. It was really warmly received by the Richmond audience, lots of cheers.
Anymore to come?
