Stranger Things – The First Shadow, based on Netflix’s smash hit TV sci-fi drama series, is a completely new psychological thriller and a prequel. The theatre was full of fans, who were clearly loving seeing the adult characters, they knew so well from watching them in the TV series, on stage as teenagers. As for me, who had never seen the series, I hadn’t a clue what was going on.
The prequel is written by the Duffer Brothers and Jack Thorne (who adapted Harry Potter successfully for the stage) and Kate Trefry. Stephen Daldry directs. Justin Martin co-directs. Miriam Buether designs. The credentials are good and the production gets off to an impressive, creepy and spectacular, Gothic start with a giant ship being shipwrecked and fog engulfing the auditorium.
The action is set in a small rural American town, Hawkins, Indiana, in 1959. The leading character is Henry Creel, a vulnerable boy with supernatural powers, who is not inherently evil, and who wants to be normal. He is played by Louis McCartney, making his stage debut. Patrick Vaill is cast as the doctor who misuses him. The actors are well cast.
Audiences have always loved spectacle and there are plenty of illusions, projections and videos to enjoy in this production. Theatregoers, as opposed to Netflix fans, however, I suspect, will want something more. The storyline is weak. The production goes on far too long (over three hours!) and it does not have enough horror and humour. The actors are over-miked and shout too much.
There is a side of me, which feels I should make an effort to see the original Netflix series. But what seeing this show actually did for me was make me want to see William Berney and George Richardson’s Dark of the Moon, the stage adaptation of The Ballad of Barbara Allen, which the Hawkins high school children are seen rehearsing in Stranger Things.
As far as I know, Dark of the Moon, hugely popular with schools in the USA, has had no professional production in Britain since Peter Brook’s much-lauded production in 1948.
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