This isn’t actually the first time I’ve seen this play. I went to see it with the original cast members, so I was pretty interested in seeing how another group of actors portrayed the characters I was already familiar with. Plus, I was curious to see if there were any bits I’d missed out on the first time. And I’d been invited to go by a couple of friends, so….
The play had what seemed to be a fairly simple premise. Jen and her husband, Sam, have recently moved into a new house, along with their baby, but while Sam’s away on a trip, Jen starts hearing strange noises coming from their daughter’s room: footsteps and the sense there’s someone there who she can’t see. And she tells Sam, who doesn’t believe her, because he’s a man of science, of logic, who scoffs at the very idea of ghosts.
This is the reason for the dinner party, for Jen to prove – to her husband and possibly herself – that what she’s experienced the last four nights has been real. And to that end, she invites another couple to join them: Lauren, an old friend of Sam’s who specialises in mental health, and Ben, a builder who, it turns out, has had his own experience with the supernatural.
There are only four characters who really appear in this play and the actors do a good job of building the tension, as well as defusing it at the times it’s necessary. While the cast in this version didn’t seem to bounce off each other as well as those in the version I saw, it was still pretty good, with some nice bits of foreshadowing involved.
I do have to say, the constant screaming of the foxes got old really quick. Yes, it worked the first time to make people jump…but after that, it was just eye-rolling.
The atmosphere of the play worked really well. It truly felt like I was sitting in the living room with the four of them. And all of the talk of ghosts and science was a great way to get to know the characters even more. I especially liked the drinking game, where they talked about why people didn’t see more ghosts and that maybe it was difficult to make the journey. While the theories weren’t revealed to be anything more than that in the play, they were interesting to think about.
All in all, this play was entertaining and I enjoyed seeing it both times, with different actors involved. I don’t think I’ll go and see it a third time, but I think it’s definitely worth seeing twice…if only to see the clues throughout that you might have missed the first time through.
Ink of Blood 