ajhlovestheatre

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 

by Levi Holloway

based on the films written and directed by Oren Peli

directed by Felix Barrett

Ambassadors Theatre, London – until 28 March 2026

running time: 2 hours 15 minutes including interval 

https://paranormalonstage.com/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23197313702&gbraid=0AAAABBk00Ej02iVJ-L_2YzRothXQiLRSD

Abject terror isn’t the easiest thing to convey in the theatre. There’s something about the artificiality of the medium that tends to keep audiences at arms length, as opposed to the screen where close-ups and jump cuts can draw viewers into the heart of an unfolding nightmare. First seen in Leeds last year and now on a major USA tour, Paranormal Activity, this creepy-as-hell stage cousin to the seven popular horror movies, is the genuine article though. Forget 2:22 A Ghost Story, and even, to a lesser extent, The Woman in Black, this really is frightening.

Punchdrunk’s Felix Barrett, directing Levi Holloway’s terse, tense script, transcends traditional play-making to create a bone-chilling piece of ‘total theatre’ where the sections sat in total darkness listening to Gareth Fry’s deeply unsettling sound scape are just as important as the onstage scenes. There are similarities to Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson’s frequently revived Ghost Stories in that it’s the build-up of tension to all hell breaking loose that really gets the audience on edge, but whereas in that earlier show the pay-off was sometimes a let down, here the action just gets nastier and more imaginative. Yes, it’s essentially preposterous but good luck with telling yourself that when you’re sitting there in the gloom with your sphincter clenched and listening to the rest of the audience cry out in panic and fear.

The basics of the plot will be familiar to fans of the films. Young American couple James (Patrick Heusinger) and Lou (Melissa James) have relocated from Chicago to London partly because of his career but also because she was having issues back home that were attributed to her mental health, although any horror aficionado will know full well that there’s gonna be more to it than that. They’re living in a house (grungy, impressive split level set by Fly Davis) that on first impression appears charmingly ramshackle but which becomes less and less cosy and appealing with every (frequent) blackout.

Heusinger’s disintegration from masculine self assurance to terrified self-abasement is superbly managed. The writing for Lou isn’t as nuanced but James has genuine presence and an ambiguous, aching intensity that is tremendously effective. Although the characters are essentially created to further the plot, Jackie Morrison as a benignly efficient psychic and Pippa Winslow as James’ God-fearing mom make potent contributions. 

Technically, the show is, to put it inelegantly, stonkingly good. Chris Fisher’s illusions and Luke Halls’ video designs make you doubt the evidence of your own eyes, and Anna Watson’s lighting transforms and tantalises. If Holloway’s script is more efficient than inspired as writing and drags a bit in act one, it does an excellent job of planting the seeds of demonic mayhem and using repeated motifs that seem innocuous at first but end up loaded with chilling significance. It’s not always clear what should be funny and what is intended to be deadly serious, but that duality is part of the fun in a show where an overstimulated audience occasionally make more noise than anybody on stage.

Overall, this is a huge success in terms of achieving exactly what it sets out to do, and is likely to be a major West End hit. I can’t remember the last time a piece of theatre made all the hairs on the back of my neck stand up through sheer fear, but this one did. Twisted good fun.