Paranormal Activity - Review

Ambassadors Theatre, London

****

Written by Levi Holloway

Directed by Felix Barrett

Melissa James and Patrick Heusinger

Drawn from the seven-movie Paranormal Activity franchise, this new tale sees James (played by Patrick Heusinger) and Lou (Melissa James) move from Chicago to London in the hope of escaping a presence that has been haunting their lives. 

Within moments of the curtain rising the tone is set and tension is firmly on the menu (with a healthy increased heart rate as a side), followed by a rollercoaster of fear that is best left to be experienced first-hand.  Chris Fisher’s illusions are sensational, delivering scares good enough to garner loud, theatre-wide reactions. As the interval lights came up the audience’s relieved chatter, grateful for the brief respite from the terror, was audible. 

The second act takes advantage of one’s lowered guard, immediately ramping up the tension, rarely letting up till the close of the show, the tight and creative delivery of the effects packing a punch around every turn.

All of this is only possible due to the impressive cast who deliver convincing performances throughout. It took very little time to become convinced and invested in the relationship of the young couple and quickly sympathetic to their struggles

Experiencing Paranormal Activity in a packed theatre amidst the audience’s reactions to the evening’s scares only enhances the experience. Terrifying fun!

Runs until 28th February 2026

Photo credit: Johan Persson

Reviewed by Kishan Lukha

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Review

Ambassadors Theatre, London

*****

Music & lyrics by Darren Clark

Book, lyrics & directed by Jethro Compton

Clare Foster and John Dagleish

“It’s all just a matter of time…” a recurring lyric throughout this musical iteration of F Scott Fitzgerald’s classic short story – and over the last few years it has been a slow but enchanting journey, watching this show evolve through two iterations at the Southwark Playhouse into its West End premiere at the Ambassadors Theatre.

The story of Benjamin Button is a modern classic. Born in the early 20th century, by a freak of the fates as a 70 year-old man, Button goes through his life gradually becoming younger until he finally expires as an infant in swaddling. Stripping away all the Oscar winning digital/CGI enhancements incorporated in the 2008 movie, writers Jethro Compton and Darren Clark shift the fable from its New Orleans origins to their native Cornwall, and in so doing create a show that gloriously celebrates story-telling through its inspirational cast.

John Dagleish plays Button and in a simple depiction of his age, arrives in the show as a hunched, bespectacled, bowler-hatted and pipe-smoking curmudgeon. Its an ingenious touch that celebrates Button’s age, yet allows him to evolve through the show with simple  costume and make-up adjustments. Dagleish has a fine voice and through an outstanding performance also captures the quizzical yet paradoxically wise, innocence of Button through the show’s first act. The second half brings moments of heartbreaking poignancy as Button's freakishly evolving youthfulness sees him encounter rejection and disbelief from some of those around him.

The show’s company of actor-musicians lend a rustic-folksy authenticity to the evening that imbues it with a mystical Cornish air. Designed by Compton with Anna Kelsey the stage is rough-timbers and staircases with fishing nets draped across the ceiling – subtle and understated, yet a beautiful evocation of this story’s roots.

Opposite Benjamin is his love interest, Elowen, played by the magnificent Clare Foster. Elowen’s character ages in the natural way through the show and it is a mark of Foster’s genius that she embodies the woman not only as a coquettish teenager, but also, sensitively, through the loving and passionate years of her middle-age, through to her ultimate passing, all with a tenderness and an authenticity that mark hers as one of the more fabulous female performances in musical theatre to have graced a London stage in quite some time. 

Leave your memories of the movie at the door. Clark and Compton’s interpretation of this whimsical story, together with their inspirational melodies, mark this show as perhaps the finest new writing to hit the West End this year. If the media gods allow, this production almost deserves a movie of its own. Who knows? Surely it’s all just a matter of time….

Booking until 15th February 2025

Photo credit: Marc Brenner