Paranormal Activity
Milton Keynes Theatre
15th September 2026
With “spooky season” just around the corner, theatregoers looking for a few bumps in their nights will be intrigued by the arrival of ‘Paranormal Activity’, a horror stage show that takes its name from the successful film franchise. That’s where the similarities end though, as playwright Levi Holloway and director Felix Barrett have fashioned an entirely new story for the theatre, first developed at Leeds Playhouse before enjoying a successful West End run and now embarking on its first UK and Ireland tour. Rather than simply recreating the films, this production takes their central premise – an ordinary couple confronted by an increasingly malevolent supernatural presence – and exploits the unique possibilities of live performance. Playing this week at Milton Keynes Theatre, the result is a deliciously tense evening that demonstrates just how effectively horror can work when experienced collectively, in real time, with an audience holding its breath together.
The story follows newlyweds James (played by James Bye) and Lou (Hannah Sinclair Robinson), who have moved from Chicago to London in the hope of making a fresh start. As unsettling incidents become increasingly difficult to dismiss, the couple find themselves feeling like something has followed them from a murky past, and draws them into a terrifying situation in which the distinction between psychological fear and supernatural threat becomes ever more blurred.
‘Paranormal Activity’ is a welcome addition to the underserved market of horror on stage. A contemporary rival to the understated dread of ‘The Woman In Black’ without the false mechanics of ‘2.22 A Ghost Story’, ‘Paranormal Activity’ knows that it wants to scare you, and also knows exactly how to do it. Utilising clever stage craft, nerve-jangling sound design and deceptive lighting, the show doesn’t just bring empty jump scares, it slowly tightens its grip around the audience and masterfully ramps up the tension until you start to wonder if the people around you can hear your heart racing. Deviating from the films is a wise idea, both in that it makes this stage adaptation fresh and new (unlike many other recent stale attempts), while also meaning the audience can’t know how the story plays out, which is repaid tenfold as the tension builds and the story delivers its shocking conclusion. Levi Holloway’s script establishes a convincing domestic relationship between James and Lou before gradually allowing unease to seep into their everyday lives, and while there are moments when the characterisation could perhaps be developed further, the writing enticingly leaves space for the audience’s imagination to do the work, carefully revealing information gradually and planting details that acquire greater significance as the evening progresses.
Felix Barrett’s direction brings a finely tuned understanding of atmosphere, audience expectation and theatrical space. Rather than constantly assaulting us with shocks, he allows tension to build almost imperceptibly before pulling the rug away at precisely the right moment. The direction makes wonderfully clever use of what the audience can and cannot see, frequently leaving us wondering whether something has moved in the shadows or whether our imaginations are simply getting the better of us.
Fly Davis’s two-storey house provides an impressively detailed yet claustrophobic setting, giving the audience multiple areas to watch and creating an irresistible sense that something could be happening just outside our immediate field of vision. Chris Fisher’s illusions are spectacular without feeling gratuitous, while Anna Watson’s lighting and Gareth Fry’s sound design work together superbly to manipulate our nerves. The production is particularly impressive in the way all these elements combine: a change in lighting, an unexpected sound or the smallest movement within the house can suddenly transform an apparently ordinary moment into something deeply unsettling.
James Bye and Hannah Sinclair Robinson make an engaging central pairing as James and Lou, ensuring that there is genuine human interest beneath the supernatural. Bye captures James’s scepticism and desire to remain in control, while Robinson brings considerable emotional vulnerability to Lou as her certainty about what she is experiencing grows. Their relationship gives the horror its necessary grounding, and both performers handle the production’s increasingly intense atmosphere with conviction. Jo Castleton and Caroline Faber also make strong contributions as Etheline Cotgrave and Carolanne.
‘Paranormal Activity’ proves that horror deserves its place on our stages, and when done right, is just as powerful as any other piece of drama or musical theatre. Viscerally intense with tension levels off the scale, ‘Paranormal Activity’ gets under your skin and stays there until you feel it creeping up your spine. Everything that ‘2.22’ should’ve been, this is how to tell a ghost story in nerve-shredding heart-pounding style.
‘Paranormal Activity’ runs at Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday 19th September 2026 before continuing on its UK tour into 2027.
Performance runtime 2 hours 10 minutes including interval.
Details at –
https://www.atgtickets.com/venues/milton-keynes-theatre/whats-on
