'2:22 - A Ghost Story' Off-Broadway review — a dinner party goes frightfully wrong

Read our review of 2:22 - A Ghost Story off Broadway, an Olivier Award-nominated thriller starring Anna Camp, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Finn Jones, and Matthew Marquez.

If you’ve never heard the mating call of a vixen fox, count yourself lucky. I first heard it back in 2020, when it repeatedly pierced the silent 1 a.m. air from the woods behind my rural childhood home — not a time or place you want to hear any sound that resembles a woman’s scream. It’s thoroughly terrifying, and Ian Dickinson, the sound designer of 2:22 - A Ghost Story, understands this. He deploys the fox’s primal shriek no fewer than four times, and its sheer suddenness and piercing volume never failed to make me jump. Back in those woods, the scream was an empty shock — no damsel was actually in distress — and so, too, may it be in Danny Robins’s thriller. But it might also merely distract from something else truly sinister.

Or someone. Our suspicions are quickly cast upon Sam (Finn Jones), who's almost maniacally hellbent on disproving his wife, Jenny's (Jasmine Cephas Jones), belief that a ghost is lying in wait to harm their baby daughter. Viewers of Levi Holloway's acclaimed Paranormal Activity, currently on Broadway, may notice shared DNA between that play and 2:22: a remote London home, a justly paranoid wife, a dismissive husband, very loud noises.

2:22 dramatizes those beats in more melodramatic fashion than Paranormal, with directors Matthew Dunster and Gabriel Vega Weissman seemingly encouraging their cast to play their characters to almost soap-operatic extremes. Sam and Jenny's face-off unfurls in front of two dinner guests, Sam's old friend Lauren (Anna Camp, returning from the play's L.A. run) and her builder-turned-partner Ben (Martin Marquez, the most grounded of the quartet), who are roped into taking sides as the argument intensifies. Dinner-table squabbling gives way to an impassioned drinking game, then a full-on seance. The question of the ghost's presence similarly intensifies, turning into a broader ideological debate over gentrification, religion, and science. All the while, a large digital clock ticks away the minutes until 2:22 a.m., when Jenny claims the ghost always emerges.

Ben, with a generational belief in the supernatural, is quick to support her, but Lauren's unrequited love for Sam makes her alliances less steady, especially as she gets progressively drunker out of both excitement and desperation. Camp makes a meal out of her part's loose, unpredictable physicality, while Cephas Jones and Marquez get the show's sharpest verbal zingers. I'll admit, 2:22 rarely frightened me — save for those fox screams — but it made me dryly laugh at its central thesis, which it also shares with Paranormal Activity: The only thing scarier than a phantom haunting is a very real, very condescending know-it-all. Ain't it the truth.

2:22 - A Ghost Story summary

Spouses Sam and Jenny host another couple, Lauren and Ben, over for dinner shortly after the birth of their first child and Sam's return from a work trip overseas. While alone with the baby in the house, Jenny became convinced a ghost was haunting them, as strange things kept happening at 2:22 a.m. Sam's not convinced, so both couples stay up until 2:22 to find out for themselves.

2:22 - A Ghost Story has previously had six runs in London's West End, and it's also played in Los Angeles and various other world cities. The premiere London run earned the play an Olivier Award nomination.

What to expect from 2:22 - A Ghost Story

At first glance, Anna Fleischle's set is sleek, chic, and ultra-modern, but a quick inspection reveals its (intentional) imperfections. The doorframe is only partly painted; ditto for the wall above it, and a half-full wine glass sits precariously atop the stepladder Jenny uses to do the job. It's emblematic of the fact that all isn't as it seems beneath her and Finn's well-to-do facade.

2:22 - A Ghost Story runs approximately 2 hours, including an intermission. The production contains sudden loud noises, flashing lights, and a brief moment of violence.

What audiences are saying about 2:22 - A Ghost Story

Theatregoers at 2:22 - A Ghost Story off Broadway have shared mixed responses to the production, with many praising the performances and scenic design while sharing varied opinions on the story and the scare factor. On the review aggregator Show-Score, the play has an 80% audience approval rating, averaged from 140 reviews, as of writing.

• "The story kept me guessing until the end, which I appreciated, although the concept itself felt familiar and the reveal didn't have much of a wow factor. The acting was a bit uneven but generally good. I also found the lighting effects used for jump scares rather unnecessary. A pleasant night at the theater, just not a particularly memorable production." - Show-Score user Ekaterina Khodorich
• "After intermission the repetitive nature of it all--even great dialogue can begin to wear thin if the same points are made over and over (ditto for even the cleverest of scare tactics if they're relied on too much)--becomes, unfortunately, far too noticeable. Riding to the show's rescue, though, is a finale that is as sad as it is shocking. No wonder audiences are warned after all the madness is done not to reveal the ending. '2:22--A Ghost Story' is the kind of thriller typically seen at the movies. Here it's been written, for the most part successfully, for the stage." - Show-Score user stuontheaisle
• "Probably the best of the season's scary plays." - Show-Score user Dr Paul

Read more audience reviews of 2:22 - A Ghost Story on Show-Score.

Who should see 2:22 - A Ghost Story

• 2:22 - A Ghost Story is a great option for scaredy-cats (myself included) who want to dip their toe into the horror genre. There are frightful moments, but Robins's story also has plenty of dark comedy and romantic drama.
• Fans of Paranormal Activity on Broadway will want to see how Robins tackles similar themes as that play — namely, the thin line between supernatural demons and inner ones.
• The characters wage a war of fact vs. faith that turns into a larger debate over how beliefs in science vs. religion can and should coexist. It should leave audience members interested in this topic plenty to debate themselves once the show is over.

Learn more about 2:22 - A Ghost Story off Broadway

2:22 - A Ghost Story is a kind of comedy of terrors, giving a supernatural twist to the classic tale of a dinner party gone wrong.

Learn more and get 2:22 - A Ghost Story tickets on New York Theatre Guide. 2:22 - A Ghost Story is at the Lucille Lortel Theatre through January 17.

Photo credit: 2:22 - A Ghost Story off Broadway. (Photos by Evan Zimmerman)