The Enfield Haunting - Brighton / Richmond / Ambassadors

I do feel for the cast because there's not a lot you can do with it. It's a play which manages to make the Enfield Poltergeist quite boring - how do you work with that as a performer? Threlfall tries his best to inject some life, but even then the line between Grosse's eccentric doddering and the meandering quality of some of the dialogue starts to blur, bringing any tension to a halt. 

It's a real shame because the general idea of it is very theatrical - a contained space, bubbling domestic tension, the question of whether someone is lying to you. But the atmosphere in the room on opening night was palpable, people were just not engaged. 

Saw it tonight, avoid at all costs. Genuinely one of the most terrible nights in the theatre. How anyone thought this play was good enough to have a professional production is a mystery.

Catherine Tate looks like a deer in headlights, like she's arrived on stage and suddenly realised there's no actual character for her to play. I have no idea why she thought this was worth her time. David Threlfall at least has an actual character with some kind of arc but she has nothing to really work with.

The script is the main problem, completely inert, no real drama, and terrible dialogue. I felt sorry for the actors having to try and make something of this.

There is now an interval, we thought since the second act is only 40 minutes we might as well stay but the second act is even worse and given there is no real resolution or any real drama at all you wouldn't miss anything if you didn't.

Just a pointless waste of everyone's time.

It does bring out an almost morbid curiosity doesn't it?

Not a terribly good season for plays in the West End it seems.

Saw this tonight, and there is no story.

Watching David Threlfall being David Threlfall is a good thing.

Some spoilers follow. . .

Ok, there is a story, it lasts 5 minutes, in the body of a play running 2 hours, including one interval, and it answers the question why David Threlfall's Grosse has come to Enfield hunting Ghosts without his Ghostbusters partner, Playfair.

The 5 minute story feels like it's from a more innocent age, where in "The Twilight Zone" someone would want something paranormal to happen, it would happen, and then Rod Serling would say "Maybe it's possible in the Twilight Zone." The End.

Except this story is such a short amount of the running time, which is otherwise just "Here's a day in the life of the Enfield Haunting."

A day that simply depicts the "Haunting" and tells you definitively whether the Haunting is real or not, something that obviously doesn't matter, because they can tell you whatever they like, and it doesn't make it true.

So ultimately, you're left with the following things to enjoy:

(1) Threlfall's a great actor, and has a way of being on stage that compels moment to moment attention;

(2) Ella Shrey-Yates gives good Linda Blair from "The Exorcist;"

(3) The lighting person does a good Tate Modern "Lights on Lights Off" whenever the Sound person does a good shrill scary noise, ala 2:22, though this time its not foxes;

(4) The rest of the cast do a decent job of living a random day in a scary house.

I rate this two stars, mostly cos I like watching Threlfall, but I still can't believe how truncated the actual story is, and how the Enfield Haunting of the title is actually just background noise for this teeny tiny story!

Reading the comments, I feel sorry for the cast. Can’t imagine how they gonna survive the West End run…

Press night is supposedly Wednesday 6 December. Eek.

Such a shame. It certainly looks the part in the images that have been released. I've seen quite a bit of praise for Ella Schrey-Yeats' performance too. The source material is so strong and should lend itself well to a theatrical setting. A real missed opportunity that this take on it appears to be so misconceived. I can't recall such a near unanimously scathing reaction to a piece quite like this before.

Like others, I feel sorry for the cast. They must be aware of how the play is being received, both online and in the muted responses from audiences.

I'm booked for late December and still inclined to see it for myself. But you do have to wonder if it will even make it to the Ambassadors Theatre at this rate and, if it does, how long it can possibly last.

Damn! Booked to see this on 28th of December. Interested to see if it evolves at all, or even makes it! At least it's a short experience if really that bad unlike Lyonesse.

Yes, which has annoyed people, who have responded by saying they weren't charged preview prices in Brighton and Richmond. It's all a bit of a horlicks.

If there’s so little plot how can any amount of developing and tweaking help? Other than writing a different play!

It’s clearly going to go into the Ambassador’s pretty much as it is other than faffing with an interval so it’s puzzling to image why the producers think it will get a better reception there. Still getting universally panned on Facebook and some comments now being deleted which isn’t going down well.
Surely the leads will have been given the script to read before accepting the roles? Why didn’t they realise it was a dud?

Ditto

Lyonesse

Ditto

Mates in Chelsea

The issue is often people are still have to pay to see crap theatre

Late to the party, but Queen of Oz had me in stitches!  Anyway, that's not what we're talking about. Enfield Haunting sounds interesting. But I'll be 3,400 miles away for its entire run.  Enjoy.