2:22 A Ghost Story

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Explore 2:22 - A Ghost Story

2:22 A Ghost Story locks four people in a house until the clock reaches 2:22 in the morning. Jenny has heard the same sounds at the same minute every night since moving in, and she is certain something is there. Her husband Sam is certain there is a rational explanation. They agree to stay awake and settle it. Over dinner the argument spreads to their guests. Lauren has known Sam for years and enjoys watching him lose; Ben takes Jenny's side and has stories of his own. What begins as a game about ghosts turns into an interrogation of the marriage, of who is being patronised, and of what each of them is actually frightened of. The clock keeps moving. Danny Robins wrote the play, which first reached the stage in 2021 and has been revived repeatedly since. It is built as a single act covering one evening, with the four characters together throughout and no escape from one another's company as the hour approaches. The tension is engineered rather than atmospheric. Jump scares punctuate the talk, foxes scream outside, and the lighting keeps insisting that something is about to happen. Between the shocks the play is very funny, and the comedy does the real work: it relaxes an audience just before the next noise. It suits audiences who want to be frightened and entertained in the same evening, and who enjoy an argument between belief and scepticism in which neither side is made to look stupid. It lands best in a full house holding its breath.