Before 11 there was one.
It was the hit show that bagged legions of followers. Now the writers of the Netflix mega show have brought the Stranger Things universe to the West End stage. In its first foray into the theatre, the streaming giant is bringing the origins story of the terrifying events of Hawkins, Indiana to London.
It’s 1959 and Henry Creel, a boy who’s ’not normal’, arrives with his family in Hawkins. They’ve fled their previous home because of some unspecified ‘incidents’. Henry tries to bond with his school mates but he’s strange, and awkward. People don’t naturally engage with him. But Patty, another outsider, an orphan adopted by the school’s principal, sees something of herself in him.
The burgeoning teen romance is derailed by Henry’s secret. Henry has some very special powers, and sometimes he can’t control those powers.
The young cast bring 1950s America to life with energy and enthusiasm, but the real star of the show here is the staging. Director Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot, The Hours, The Crown) told the play’s writer (Kate Trefry) who has worked on the tv series since 2017, to create a script in the same way she would for tv and they would worry about the staging later. The end result is a brilliant, fast paced, adventure takes the audience from the Pacific in 1943, to the school gymnasium via the upside down and beyond. The special effects team have produced a showcase that would satisfy the most demanding sci-fi nerd. There are bangs, and shocks and breathtaking special effects which create the seemingly impossible on stage.
The show runs until next summer at the Phoenix Theatre, on Charing Cross Road.
