Paul Unwin's The Enfield Haunting, based on one of the most famous poltergeist events, will play a limited engagement in London's West End this fall, and the cast is positively killer.
Directed by Angus Jackson, the production will run November 30-March 2, 2024, with opening set for December 6 at the Ambassadors Theatre. Prior to the West End run, the production will play the Brighton Theatre Royal November 14-18 and the Richmond Theatre November 21-25.
Previously announced stars Catherine Tate and David Threlfall lead the production, alongside Ella Schrey-Yeats (The Witcher, His Dark Materials) as Janet Hodgson, Grace Molony (Artemis Foul, Mary Queen of Scots) as Margaret Hodgson, Jude Coward Nicoll and Noah Leggott sharing the role of Jimmy Hodgson, Mo Sesay (Murphy’s Law, Endeavor) as Rey, Neve McIntosh (Shetland, Ripper Street) as Betty Grosse, and Daniel Stewart (Silent Witness, Star Trek: the Next Generation) as Writer/Old Man. Stacha Hicks (David Brent: Life of the Road, Call the Midwife) and Jasmine Spence will serve as understudies.
Tate, who can currently be seen in the BBC series Queen of Oz, will play Peggy Hodgson, a single mother who tries to protect her three children. Threlfall, Tony-nominated for his performance in Martin McDonagh’s The Hangman, will play Maurice Grosse, a ghost hunter.
The Hodgsons had no idea what a poltergeist was when, in summer 1977, furniture and toys started moving of their own accord. Unwin’s play is the story of one night in spring 1978 when events were approaching a climax.
Alongside Unwin and Jackson, the creative team will consist of set and costume designer Lee Newby, lighting designer Neil Austin, sound designer Carolyn Downing, illusion consultant Paul Kieve, casting director Sophie Holland, movement director Laura Cubitt, and voice and dialect coach Kate Godfrey.
Said Unwin in a previous statement, "Before Guy Lyon Playfair the poltergeist expert died in 2018, I spent a long afternoon with him in his basement flat in Earl's Court. He and Maurice Grosse had spent months with the Hodgson family trying to protect them, but also make sense of what was going on. What Guy told me was terrifying. So much of what appears to have happened was impossible to fake and yet at the center of the whole thing were real people trying to make sense of their lives. The Enfield Haunting is a psychological ghost story. It is a ghost story for now."
Visit EnfieldHauntingPlay.com.
