Paranormal Activity Tickets

Since the success of Danny Robbins’ 2:22: A Ghost Story, audiences have got a taste for being spooked in the theatre. Not all shows have delivered (The Enfield Haunting springs to mind), but if you genuinely want the chill to run down your spine, look no further than Paranormal Activity (Ambassadors Theatre), which is returning to the West End. This take on the movie franchise (but not a replica) is a class act. Perhaps that should be no surprise because it is directed by Punchdrunk’s Felix Barrett. It’s a crafty evening that cleverly ramps up the tension and creates a real sense of dread. Because, after all, as the show suggests, it’s not places which are haunted but people, and we take our ghosts with us. However far we might try to run.   It’s been a very good summer for Shakespeare’s Globe, which has had a string of hits (still playing in repertoire), including A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Chelsea Walker’s delightful Much Ado About Nothing.   But the summer treat could turn out to be this revival of Shakespeare’s joyously transformative comedy, As You Like It, which is directed by Sean Holmes and Charlie Josephine. The latter also plays Orlando. So, escape the heat of the city into the magical forest of Arden, an enchanted place of transformations.  

What is it? A stage show inspired by the Paranormal Activity movies, the seven-strong movie franchise which began in 2007 with a movie originally shot for less than $15,000 but which was then picked up by DreamWorks and eventually netted almost $200 million.  Oh, so another screen to stage a nostalgia fest. Don’t be too quick to judge. Writer Levi Holloway comes up with a new story but cleverly pays homage to the original as James and Lou try to leave behind the past and move from Chicago to the UK, only to discover that, however lightly you pack, you can’t ever leave your ghosts behind.  I was unlucky enough to see The Exorcist on stage, and it certainly left my head spinning at just how bad it was, and more recently The Enfield Haunting was hardly a great advertisement for things that go bump in the night. Maybe we should just accept that horror on stage is always a bit naff. No, really, this is pretty classy stuff and well worth your time. It’s not Shakespeare, but not all theatre has to be Shakespeare, and this is cleverly executed entertainment which racks up the tension with impeccable skill. Fly Davis's design offers a box of tricks which is then used smartly for Chris Fisher’s illusions; Gareth Fry’s sound design is just so, and it’s directed with real technical aplomb by Felix Barrett. Felix Barrett? The guy who runs the immersive outfit, Punchdrunk? One and the same. Which is interesting because there is much to suggest that all of Punchdrunk’s large-scale shows are an exercise in creating atmosphere and tension with clever technical effects. In a Punchdrunk show, rooms, even the apparently empty ones, are haunted whether by absence or by the ghosts of those who come before. Punchdrunk’s shows play on a loop in which sequences are repeated over the duration of several hours, so effectively the show ghosts itself.   Oh, and of course almost 20 years ago Barrett made It Felt Like a Kiss for the Manchester International Festival, a show which turned rumbling anxiety into all-out terror. It’s the one and only time in the theatre when I’ve been chased by a man wielding an axe. Count me out then; that kind of jump scare theatre holds absolutely no attraction for me. I think you should reconsider. There are a couple of scary moments, but unlike others in the genre (I mean, even The Woman in Black is reliant on one quite brilliant jump scare), this isn’t a show which sees its sole purpose as making your heart beat faster. It is quieter and more unnerving than that. It is a show with a built-in delayed gratification mechanism. It genuinely confounds and surprises with its technical flair, and it is as much about the ghosts that haunt a marriage as any that haunt a house.

Plunged into pitch black nothingness, we listen to a softly spoken radio host. She asks us questions and asks us to question our answers. Under her instructions we then meditate as a group. We breathe in, we breathe out, we breathe in, we breathe out, we breathe in, and then we hold it for the next two hours… This isn’t the first time audiences have had their nerves tested at the Ambassadors, Andy Nyman’s Olivier nominated Ghost Stories haunted the Edwardian theatre six years ago, while last year’s Enfield Haunting had people fearing for their lives (though, perhaps not in the way they were hoping…). It’s 2025, the frost is creeping in and the ghosts are back. However this time it is the people that are haunted, not the place. There is no escape for the new homeowners, James (Patrick Heusinger) and Lou (Melissa James). The show's title may be familiar, but the story won’t be. Set in the same world as the 2007 film, this Paranormal Activity follows an American couple, James and Lou, as they move to London to escape their demons. It is only when they arrive that they realise that the paranormal won’t be shaken-off so easily.