‘I’d get freaked out here, alone in the dark. Wondering what’s lurking at the bottom of the bed, ready to grab your feet.’
Jenny and Sam – and their baby Phoebe – have recently moved into their new home. But something feels frightening and wrong. Very wrong. Over the baby monitor, at 2:22 every night, Jenny hears footsteps around her daughter’s cot. Could the house be haunted?
When their friends Lauren and Ben come round for a housewarming dinner, they drink wine, relive their pasts, and argue about the existence of ghosts. They decide to stay up until 2:22, to discover the truth. Over one adrenaline-filled night – as the foxes scream outside – secrets will emerge and ghosts may appear…
Spine-chilling, funny and scary, Danny Robins’ play 2:22 was premiered at the Noël Coward Theatre in London’s West End in August 2021, directed by Matthew Dunster, and starring Lily Allen, Julia Chan, Hadley Fraser and Jake Wood. It went on to win Best New Play at the 2022 WhatsOnStage Awards, and was nominated for Best New Play at the Olivier Awards.
2:22 provides rich opportunities for any drama group wanting to make things go bump in the night – and their audiences scream.
‘A contemporary haunted-house chiller that smartly plays with all the old tropes and leaves the room electric with fear’
— Guardian
‘[A] clever, remorselessly effective supernatural thriller… I kicked myself that I didn’t see the final twist coming, but it’s brilliantly done. This is a superior, knowing piece of genre drama… A great, spine-tingling night out’
— Evening Standard
‘The mounting sense of dread is relentless… Robins – the creator of hit podcast The Battersea Poltergeist – is well-versed in what makes scary stories scary, and uses that to brilliant effect here’
— Independent
‘A cracking dinner party play, alive with wit and tension… the extremely cleverly worked supernatural angle keeps things fresh… a rare and precious example of a Good West End Ghost Play… [it] really does deliver’
— Time Out
‘A teasingly clever and deservedly lucrative spine-tingler’
— Telegraph
‘A gripping, clever modern ghost story that gets more intriguing as it goes along (and even after it is over)… witty as well as scary, and delivers a great punch in the final round’
— Arts Desk
Best New Play, WhatsOnStage Awards
