{"id":498531,"date":"2025-10-14T10:15:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T10:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/498531\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T10:15:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T10:15:16","slug":"i-saw-stacey-dooley-and-kevin-clifton-in-birmingham-and-it-was-intense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/498531\/","title":{"rendered":"I saw Stacey Dooley and Kevin Clifton in Birmingham and it was intense"},"content":{"rendered":"

The couple star in 2:22 A Ghost Story at the Alexandra Theatre – here’s our spoiler-free review\"Kirsty<\/p>\n

Kirsty is a Black Country bab in Birmingham, a freelance contributor with a particular interest in food and drink, music, leisure, fun and adventure. She was a former Women in Local News Best What’s On Journalist and she’s particularly interested in hearing about new openings and brilliant things to do in the region. Get in touch: Kirsty.Bosley@reachplc.com.<\/p>\n

\"StaceyStacey Dooley and Kevin Clifton in 2:22 A Ghost Story(Image: Helen Murray)<\/p>\n

There’s always been something special about Stacey Dooley and I think it’s something we generally value quite highly here in Birmingham: She’s just… normal.<\/p>\n

None of this jazz-handsing, over-performative, former-stage-school-kid cheesiness. It means she’s quite perfect to play the role of Jenny in the Danny Robins production of 2:22 A Ghost Story, currently playing at the Alexandra Theatre<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Considering this role is her first, you’d be forgiven in thinking it was made for her.<\/p>\n

Read more: The \u00a360 sleeper train that takes you from Birmingham to the world’s most beautiful places<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Stacey plays the new mum like you’re a fly on the wall in her own (haunted) house, the realism ramped up by the fact her husband Sam is played by her real life partner (in Strictly and in love) Kevin Clifton. She’s a natural.<\/p>\n

The thing you must know about 2:22 is that I can’t tell you anything about what happens. And you’ll understand why when you go and see it.<\/p>\n

And make no mistake, you should definitely go.<\/p>\n

What I can say is that the whole thing takes place in one open-plan kitchen\/diner\/living room, with no elaborate set changes aside from an open patio door to let the cold in. It relies on clever music and lighting changes to ramp up the tension (or scare the life out of you completely).<\/p>\n

As two couples settle into a night at Jenny and Sam’s new gaff, things getting ever boozier, we too settle into our spot in among it all.<\/p>\n

That’s what makes the play so captivating to watch. In fact, that’s what makes the play so scary – we are in deep as we learn about a haunting and creep together towards learning the truth of it all.<\/p>\n

There are only two other characters, Lauren (played by Shvorne Marks) and Ben (Grant Kilburn), the latter particularly stand-out thanks to a witty script and, just like with Our Stacey, a sense of ‘everyman’ about the working class guy.<\/p>\n

Because of the lack of stage and costume transformation, there’s nowhere to hide for the four actors. The dialogue is everything, a long and well-told story you have to catch every word of.<\/p>\n

They all do a great job, but Stacey took us through her fear, doubt, worry and uncertainty with the most authenticity. I can’t help but feel we will see her on these boards again – she really was smashing.<\/p>\n

Aside from Stacey, strength came from the use of sound, whether it be a fox scream or an intensity-building track from Massive Attack.<\/p>\n

It’s clever, if at times gratuitous – at the interval you could almost hear the jangling nerves as visitors headed for a swift half-time wine to calm them.<\/p>\n

2:22 A Ghost Story is the perfect spooky tale to see in the (also probably haunted, right?) Alex.<\/p>\n

And while it’s been to the city before, and will almost certainly be back again, you really need to go and see Stacey telling it, specifically.<\/p>\n

Then next time, you can go again, to spot the things you didn’t catch the first time around… Good luck!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The couple star in 2:22 A Ghost Story at the Alexandra Theatre – here’s our spoiler-free review Kirsty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[163782,855,983,748,393,4884,1888,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-498531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-alexandra-theatre-birmingham","9":"tag-birmingham","10":"tag-birmingham-city-centre","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-strictly-come-dancing","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115372000979791805","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}