It Walks Around The House At Night follows Joe, an out-of-work actor who accepts a suspiciously well-paid job playing a ghost at a remote country manor.
What initially presents itself as a stroke of unexpected fortune — a handsome fee to wander darkened grounds in costume — gradually turns into something altogether more ominous. It is a promising premise, and for stretches it delivers on that promise. But the evening ultimately leaves one with the nagging sense of a play that never quite trusts itself enough to be truly frightening.
Written by Tim Foley and directed by Neil Bettles, the script touches on interesting ideas around class and desperation, but the central conflict doesn't build enough tension to keep you gripped. The ending, when it comes, feels familiar — horror fans will likely have seen it coming well before the final scene.
Pete Malkin's sound design and Joshua Pharo's lighting and video do a lot of the heavy lifting. There are moments that make you jump — though more often than not, that's down to sudden loud noises rather than any real sense of creeping dread.
George Naylor carries the whole show alone and does so with charm. There are some genuinely funny moments, and he handles the storytelling well. The attempts to break the fourth wall, though, don't quite land. And when the performance tips into repeated shouting, it has the opposite of the intended effect — it deflates the tension rather than raising it.
It Walks Around the House at Night is a production with much to admire in craft and ambition. It simply lacks the courage — or perhaps the restraint — to be as frightening as it wants to be. The house has atmosphere. The ghost, alas, is not quite haunting enough.
It runs until 28 March.
Photos: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan