About the work
2:22 A Ghost Story is a thriller with supernatural and comic elements by the British writer Danny Robins, who had previously made his name with podcasts and radio series about hauntings. It premiered on 3 August 2021 at the Noël Coward Theatre in London's West End, directed by Matthew Dunster with Lily Allen as Jenny. The German translation by Sarina Reyer (2:22 Eine Geistergeschichte) is licensed by Litag Theaterverlag; the German-language premiere followed in 2026 at the Kleines Theater Bad Godesberg in Bonn.
Plot
Jenny and Sam have moved into an old house with their baby daughter and are renovating it. For several nights Jenny has heard footsteps and a man crying over the baby monitor at exactly 2:22 am, while the rational Sam was away on a work trip and does not believe in ghosts. At a dinner party with Sam's old university friend Lauren and her new partner Ben, who believes in the supernatural, the four decide to stay up together until 2:22.
Cultural significance
The play was nominated for the 2022 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play and won Best New Play, among other prizes, at the 2022 WhatsOnStage Awards. It went on to run with changing casts at several West End theatres, including the Gielgud Theatre, and has been staged in Los Angeles, Melbourne, Dublin, Singapore and Prague, among other places.