Written by Levi Holloway
Directed by Felix Barrett
Co-produced by Leeds Playhouse and Simon Friend Entertainment
Courtyard Theatre, Leeds Playhouse
This brand new production is based on the highly successful horror film series Paranormal Activity which became a global cultural phenomenon. Paranormal Activity – A New Haunting Live on Stage is written by Levi Holloway and directed by Felix Barrett MBE, the Artistic Director of Punchdrunk. This theatre company is synonymous with the term immersive theatre with hugely successful and long running productions such as Sleep No More, The Drowned Man and most recently The Burnt City and Viola’s Room. As a production which has been marketed with a deliberate policy of giving no details about content it follows the trademark Punchdrunk secrecy which lends itself well to ensuring maximum shock factor for this horror production as there are zero spoiler alerts. It has garnered its buzz from lovers of the horror genre and those theatre goers excited to see what Barrett can create in his first venture into working in a traditional theatre setting.
Sitting in darkness, a voice invites the audience to collectively close their eyes and contemplate the German term eigengraus meaning significant grey which is what we all see when we shut our eyes. The voice suggests that this gray is not a colour but is a place where we make contact with the Dead. A voice in the darkness is a perfect medium for hypnotic induction and so even before we see the stage our senses are becoming immersed in a collective sense of fear.
The set design by Fly Davis is like my childhood dolls house where the front slides off to reveal a two story home complete with stairs and landing. Filled with homely details it evokes a cosy normality that may still hint at an uneasy undercurrent and has a similar attention to detail that is typical of a Punchdrunk set where Barrett delights in dropping clues and meta references. This is a house on a typical London road where street lights glow and where car lights and flashing lights from emergency vehicles will occasionally illuminate the front windows. Where the outside sound of the incessant pelting rain of a British “summer” blends with sounds within a typical home where Alexa playing a chill out soundtrack is punctuated by the whistle of a kettle on the stove or the reassuring voice of Rachel from Countdown is on Channel 4. An American couple have recently moved into this pleasant home and are adapting to married life and adjusting to life in London having left Chicago. Jimmy has video chats with his overbearing Christian Mom while Lou likes to listen to podcasts about the supernatural. All seems well…
The very naturalistic performances are uniformly strong and the tight, well paced writing by Levi Holloway is peppered with pithy dialogue and some very funny one- liners that give the characters real depth but also allows humour to offset the gnawing fear or at times misdirect it by creating light relief then sucker punching you with a sudden shocker. With the aid of some truly mind blowing illusions by Chris Fisher and superb use of sound, Gareth Fry and lighting by Anna Watson the immersive sensory elements suck you in and take the audience on an emotionally turbulent journey that is always so much more than simply just a great story arc.
The story deftly explores love and trust and how we navigate what we struggle to understand or make sense off. We are all hardwired to feel certain core emotions and one of those is Fear…we need to recognise it and react appropriately to stay safe in the world whether we are being chased by a wild animal like our early ancestors or navigating modern life. We tend to fear what we don’t understand and the popularity of the horror genre perhaps allows us to explore fear in a “safe” way. This production certainly plays with our fears and builds a creeping dread with the slow burn of an increasingly spine chilling horror.
Of course not everyone believes in the Paranormal…though some like Lou believe Places aren’t haunted, people are. This made me remember my first introduction to the Paranormal was in childhood when I frequently saw my dead grandmother standing at the bottom of my bed after her death in a car accident. I was never remotely afraid of her silent presence and was not entirely relieved when she stopped appearing. My mother told me years later that the “visits” only stopped after she put a Bible under my pillow. I wonder how many in the audience buy only a ticket for themselves but perhaps turn up with their own unseen Spirit who hasn’t paid their entrance fee or go home afterwards and check behind the doors for shadows?
The only major Spoiler for this production is that it has all the quality production values elements required to suggest a highly successful transfer to the London stage.
Live Art Alive 