Smash Hit Show 2.22 – A GHOST STORY Will Transfer To The Lyric Theatre For A Strictly Limited Fifth Season Of 13 Weeks From 21 January 2023

Runaway Entertainment presents

2:22 - A GHOST STORY

The hit play by Danny Robins

Directed by Matthew Dunster

SMASH HIT 2.22 - A GHOST STORY WILL TRANSFER TO THE LYRIC THEATRE FOR A STRICTLY LIMITED FIFTH SEASON OF 13 WEEKS FROM 21 JANUARY 2023

FOLLOWING ITS PREMIERE AT THE NOEL COWARD THEATRE IN SUMMER 2021, THE PRODUCTION MOVED TO THE GIELGUD THEATRE BEFORE TRANSFERRING FOR TWO SEASONS AT THE CRITERION

THE PRODUCTION IS DIRECTED BY MATTHEW DUNSTER AND WRITTEN BY AWARD-WINNING WRITER DANNY ROBINS

CAST FOR THE LYRIC THEATRE WILL BE ANNOUNCED SOON

TICKETS FOR THE LYRIC THEATRE ARE ON SALE FROM 10AM ON 21 OCTOBER

Producer Runaway Entertainment is delighted to announce that the critically acclaimed, smash hit, supernatural thriller 2:22 - A Ghost Story will transfer theatres for a fourth time  - and its fifth season - to The Lyric Theatre where it will play a 13 week season opening on 21 January 2023. Going from strength to strength, the Lyric will be the biggest house the production has played in to date.

The production began its life last summer 2021 at the Noel Coward Theatre starring Lily Allen, Julia Chan, Hadley Fraser and Jake Wood. It then transferred to the Gielgud Theatre for 10 weeks from 4 December 2021. The production there starring Stephanie Beatriz, James Buckley, Elliot Cowan and Giovanna Fletcher completed its run on 12 February 2022. For the first season at the Criterion (May - September 2022) the cast was Tom Felton, Mandip GIll, Sam Swainsbury and Beatriz Romilly. In Late September Laura Whitmore, Matt Willis, Felix Scott and Tamsin Carroll took over and will continue until the Criterion run ends on 8 January. Cast for the transfer to the Lyric Theatre will be announced soon. 

“A great spine-tingling night out!” Evening Standard

The West End theatre event of 2021 and 2022 will return in 2023 by popular demand.

“It’s happening again...”

2:22 is written by award-winning writer Danny Robins, creator of the hit BBC podcast The Battersea Poltergeist, and is directed by Matthew Dunster. Look out for the clues to unlock the mystery in this brilliantly funny and intriguing play; it’s an adrenaline-filled night where secrets emerge and ghosts may or may not appear…

Danny Robins said "I can't tell you how much joy I get from seeing the audience's response to our show. It seemed a crazy risk when we first brought this brand new play straight into the West End at the height of the pandemic over a year ago, I keep pinching myself about the fact that we are still playing to packed houses. Each theatre, and each cast brings something new and thrilling to the experience, and I'm really excited to be moving to the Lyric, our biggest house yet. Look out for the cast announcement coming soon as the 2:22 journey continues."

What do you believe? And do you dare discover the truth?

“THERE’S SOMETHING IN OUR HOUSE. I HEAR IT EVERY NIGHT, AT THE SAME TIME"

Jenny believes her new home is haunted, but her husband Sam isn’t having any of it. They argue with their first dinner guests, old friend Lauren and new partner Ben. Can the dead really walk again? Belief and scepticism clash, but something feels strange and frightening, and that something is getting closer, so they’re going to stay up... until 2:22... and then they’ll know.

“A slick, chilling, romp of a play” The Guardian

2:22 - A Ghost Story features set design by Anna Fleischle, costume design by Cindy Lin, lighting design by Lucy Carter, sound by Ian Dickinson for Autograph Sound and illusions by Chris Fisher.

2:22 - A Ghost Story is produced by Tristan Baker and Charlie Parsons for Runaway Entertainment, Isobel David and Kater Gordon. 

2:22 - A Ghost Story
By Danny Robins
Directed by Matthew Dunster

Lyric Theatre, 29 Shaftesbury Ave, London W1D 7ES

0330 333 4812

First performance 21 January at 7.30pm

Final performance 23 April at 7.30pm

Gala Performance on 1 February at 7.30pm

Tuesday - Saturday - 7.30pm

Saturday matinee - 2.30pm

Sunday - 2pm and 6pm

Tickets from £15

Age limit 14+

Marketing Contact

Martin Gray @ EMG

@222AGhostStory #222AGhostStory 

Danny Robins
Danny Robins is an award-winning writer and journalist. He most recently created The Battersea Poltergeist, an 8-part podcast that combined drama and documentary to tell a real-life ghost story, starring Toby Jones and Dafne Keen. It became a global phenomenon – the #1 Drama Podcast across the whole world, including the US, and sparked a bidding war for the TV rights. Danny is now adapting it for TV with Hollywood producers Blumhouse. The series recently won the Gold Award for Best Serialised Podcast at the 2021 New York Festivals Radio Awards.

Danny’s first stage play, Rudy’s Rare Records, co-commissioned by Birmingham Rep and Hackney Empire was a critical and commercial success (“A wonderful funny, humane play.” The Daily Telegraph). The follow up was the acclaimed End of the Pier at London’s Park Theatre (“A tour de force” Sunday Times) His debut radio drama The Most Wanted Man in Sweden was nominated for the Writers’ Guild’s Tinniswood Award. He has created and written various shows for TV and radio, including the Bafta-nominated hit series Young Dracula, Rudy’s Rare Records and The Cold Swedish Winter. He also presented the podcast series Haunted. His new 15 part podcast series, Uncanny, for BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 4, exploring real-life ghost stories, launched on October 20th. “A contemporary Van Helsing… like Bram Stoker’s character, he’s a paranormal hunting polymath…” Sunday Times

Matthew Dunster - Director
Matthew is an Olivier-nominated director, a playwright and actor. Matthew directed Martin McDonagh’s A Very Very Very Dark Matter (The Bridge), and Hangmen (Royal Court, The Wyndhams, West End, and at The Atlantic). Directing credits include: True West (The Vaudeville, West End); Oedipus (Bunkamura Theatre, Tokyo); Liberian Girl (Royal Court); The Seagull, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Open Air Theatre); Love’s Sacrifice (RSC); Imogen, Much Ado About Nothing, Doctor Faustus (Shakespeare’s Globe); Love the Sinner (National Theatre); Mametz (National Theatre Wales); Before the Party (Almeida Theatre); A Sacred Flame (English Touring); You Can See the Hills, 1984, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Macbeth (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Mogadishu (Royal Exchange Manchester and Lyric Hammersmith). 

Anna Fleischle - Set Designer
Anna is an award-winning set and costume designer, working internationally in theatre, opera and dance. Her work is infused with the psychological drama and subtext of the play.

Theatre Includes: Once Upon A One More Time (upcoming, Nederlander, 2021); Hamlet (upcoming, Young Vic, 2021); A Kind of People, The Kid Stays in the Picture (& Complicité), Hangmen (& West End/Broadway, 2016 Olivier Award Winner for Best Set Design) and Liberian Girl (Royal Court); Death of A Salesman (Young Vic/West End); Hedda Tesman (Chichester Festival); Two Ladies, A German Life, A Very Very Very Dark Matter (Bridge); Home, I’m Darling (2019 Olivier Award Nomiee for Best Set Design and Best Costume Design.Theatr Clwyd/National/West End.); The Writer, Before the Party (Almeida); The Way of the World (Donmar); Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (Crucible; Sheffield; West End; UK tour; Korea); MuchAdo About Nothing, Troilus and Cressida (Globe); Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Old Vic); Beware of Pity (Schaubühne, Berlin/Complicité); Tiger Bay (Wales Millennium Centre/Cape Town Opera); Terror (Lyric, Hammersmith); Don Juan in Soho (West End); Rent: 20th Anniversary Production (St James/Theatr Clwyd/UK tour); The Exorcist (Birmingham Rep/West End/UK tour); The Two Noble Kinsmen, Cymbeline, Love’s Sacrifice (RSC); Henry V (Regent’s Park Open Air); Before I Leave (National Theatre Wales); The End of Longing (West End); John (National/DV8/International Tour); West Side Story, Blindsided, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Rat’s Tales (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Can We Talk About This (National/DV8/International tour/Sydney Opera House); Love The Sinner (National); As You Like It (Curve, Leicester); You Can See The Hills, Love and Money (2007 Olivier Award Nominee For Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre. Royal Exchange, Manchester/Young Vic).

Opera includes: Orfeo (upcoming, Vienna Staatsoper, 2022); Weimar Nightfall: Seven Deadly Sins (LA Philharmonic); Don Giovanni, Iphigenie en Tauride, Paul Bunyan, King Priam (English Touring Opera);Candide (Opéra National de Lorraine); Zaide (Sadler’s Wells/Classical Opera Company/UK tour).

Dance includes: Message In A  Bottle (Sadler’s Wells); Second Coming (Scottish Dance Theatre). John; Can We Talk About This (National/DV8/International tour/Sydney Opera House).

Screen includes: Monologue Hub / Soliloquy (Underexposed Arts).

Installations include: The Unforgotten (Young Vic).

Fellowships include: Founding Member of Scene/Change (2020 – present); Associate Artist, Young Vic (2020 – present); Board Member, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre (2019 - present); Ambassador for PiPA (2019 – present).

Awards include: Olivier Award for Best Set Design (2016), Critics’ Circle Best Designer Award (2015) and Evening Standard Award for Best Design (2015) (Hangmen); Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera (2014) (King Priam / Paul Bunyan).

Cindy Lin - Costume Designer
Cindy Lin a set and costume designer for live performance with a background in filmmaking. Cindy ultimately transitioned into live performance when she trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (MA Theatre Design). Her film background combined with a passion for live performance gives her a unique approach to visual storytelling that inspires atmospheric design.

Theatre credits include: Screwdriver (Lyric Hammersmith), Actually (Trafalgar Studios), Dismantle This Room (Royal Court Theatre and Bush Theatre), Breathe (Bunker Theatre), Hurricane Protest Songs (Graeae), Electra (RWCMD). Opera credits include: Madam Butterfly (OperaUpClose), Faust Alberta, Orpheus and Eurydice (Opera in the City Festival). Dance credits include: Heist (Zoielogic).

In addition, Cindy is part of the Old Vic 12 2020-2021 cohort, a Royal Opera House bursary recipient in 2017, and a Linbury Prize finalist in 2015.

Lucy Carter - Lighting Designer
Lucy Carter is a multi-award winning, critically acclaimed Lighting Designer. She was awarded the 2018 Critics Circle National Dance Award for Outstanding Contribution to Dance. She is a two-time winner of the prestigious Knight of Illumination Award for Dance for Chroma (2008) and for Woolf Works (2015); winner of the 2013 TMA Achievement award in Opera for Lohengrin; and the 2004 Olivier Dance Award for 2 Human.

Theatre credits include: Escaped Alone, Coriolanus (Crucible Theatre); Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (West End & UK Tour); On the Town (Hyogo Performing Arts, Japan); Home, I’m Darling (National Theatre and West End); The Almighty Sometimes (The Royal Exchange); Oil (Almeida); The End of Longing (West End); Medea, Emil and the Detectives, Blurred Lines and Husband and Sons (National Theatre).

Opera credits include: Orphée (ENO); Katya Kabanova (Royal Opera House - Best New Opera Production, Olivier Awards 2019); Hansel and Gretel (Royal Opera House); Werther (Bergen National Opera); Elektra (Goteborg Opera); Lohengrin (Greek National Opera, Polish National Opera, Welsh National Opera); La Finta Giardiniera (Glyndebourne, Teatro alla Scala); Peter Grimes (Aldeburgh on the Beach); Salomé, The Dream of Gerontius (ENO at The Royal Festival Hall).

Dance credits include: McGregor and Mugler, Woolf Works, Obsidian Tear, Afterite, Yugen, Multiverse, Chroma and Autobiography with long-term collaborator Wayne McGregor; Threshold (Le Patin Libre); The Most Incredible Thing (Sadlers Wells & Charlotte Ballet).

Other credits include: lighting design for Gareth Pugh’s Women’s Collection in London Fashion Week 2017 and 2019, and Paloma Faith’s performance at the Brit Awards 2015.

Ian Dickinson for Autograph - Sound Designer
Recent credits: Fracked (Chichester) Before I Leave (Cardiff) Elegy, Roots (Donmar), Uncle Vanya (Almeida), Husbands And Sons (National), Hangmen (Royal Court/Wyndhams/Broadway)

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Olivier Award and Drama Desk Award - Apollo / National Theatre/Broadway); Jerusalem (royal Court, West End and Broadway, Olivier Award Best sound design) This House, Port (National Theatre); The River (Royal Court and Broadway). The Nether (Royal Court/West End) Loves Sacrifice (RSC), Rules For Living and The Red Lion (National) The Days the Nights the Wounds and The Night (Linbury Studio); A Taste of Honey, Emil and the Detectives (National Theatre); The Weir (Wyndhams); (Donmar / Radio 3); The Machine (Manchester International Festival); Company (west end and Broadway), Small Island (National Theatre), Uncle Vanya ( Harold Pinter theatre),  This House (West End), Angels in America ( National Theatre), Europe(Donmar), The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe (Bridge Theatre).

For Regent’s Park: All My Sons, To Kill a Mockingbird, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Other theatre includes: (Mogadishu, 1984, Macbeth Fatherland, (Royal Exchange, Manchester; Cause Célèbre (Old Vic); After the Dance, Harper Regan, The Hothouse, Pillars of the Community

(National Theatre); John Gabriel Borkman (Abbey Theatre, Dublin / Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York); Bingo (Young Vic); Before the Party, Children’s Children (Almeida); South Downs, The Browning Version (Chichester).

For more information visit Autograph.

Tristan Baker & Charlie Parsons for Runaway Entertainment – Producer
Runaway Entertainment is an independent theatrical production company founded by Tristan Baker and Charlie Parsons. Most recently we commissioned and produced the award-winning and critically acclaimed Conor McPherson/Bob Dylan musical Girl From the North Country, which opened on Broadway to phenomenal reviews following runs at the Old Vic, the Noel Coward, the Gielgud and Toronto’s Royal Alexandra. Other productions include: Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Olivier Award winning In The Heights, the Olivier Award winning production of The Railway Children at King’s Cross Theatre, Guys & Dolls in the West End and on tour, Footloose (West End, South Africa and UK tours), Flashdance (UK and international tour) and The Christmasaurus Live (Hammersmith Apollo). 

2:22 A GHOST STORY TICKETS FOR THE LYRIC THEATRE ARE ON SALE FROM 10AM ON 21 OCTOBER