Catherine Tate and David Threlfall to star in new West End play The Enfield Haunting

Catherine Tate and David Threlfall are to star in a new thriller in the West End.

Paul Unwin’s The Enfield Haunting will run at The Ambassadors Theatre in London from 30 November 2023 – 2 March 2024, following runs at Brighton Theatre Royal (14 – 18 November) and Richmond Theatre (21 – 25 November). Tickets are on sale now here

Catherine Tate (Dr Who, Queen of Oz) will star as single mum Peggy Hodgson while David Threlfall (Funny Woman, Shameless) plays ghost hunter Maurice Grosse.

Joining them are Ella Schrey-Yeats as Janet Hodgson, Grace Molony as Margaret Hodgson, Mo Sesay as Rey, Neve Mcintosh as Betty Grosse, Daniel Stewart as Writer/Old Man and Understudy Maurice, Stacha Hicks as Understudy Peggy, Betty & Older Margaret, Jasmine Spence as Understudy Janet and Margaret. Jude Coward Nicoll and Noah Leggott will share the role of Jimmy Hodgson

The Hodgson’s had no idea what a poltergeist was when, in the summer of 1977, furniture and toys started moving of their own accord. An ordinary, working-class family, who lived in a north London council house became the centre of one of the most famous poltergeist events in the world. This is the story of one night in the spring of 1978 when events were approaching a climax.

Based on the first-hand accounts of one of the ghost hunters, The Enfield Haunting is the true story of what happened when a dedicated single mother, tries to protect her three children from something that is incomprehensible, deeply disturbing and is hurtling to a terrifying conclusion.

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Directed by Angus Jackson, the production has set and costume design by Lee Newby, lighting design by Neil Austin, sound design by Carolyn Downing, illusion consultation by Paul Kieve, casting by Sophie Holland, CDG, movement direction by Laura Cubitt, voice & dialect coaching by Kate Godfrey, assistant direction by Roberta Zuric, casting associate Frankie Fearis, production manager Patrick Molony, props supervision by Fahmida Bakht, costume supervision by Joan Hughes, company stage manager Rebecca James, deputy stage manager Olivia Roberts, assistant stage manager Erin Davis and wardrobe & wigs manager Lisa Brindley.

Tate said: “I’m thrilled to be part of The Enfield Haunting and can’t wait to start working with the first-class creative team and the brilliant David Threlfall.”

Threlfall added: “I’m delighted to be reuniting with director Angus Jackson and working for the first time with the amazing Catherine Tate on Paul Unwin’s version of the UK’s most famous incident of psychological inhabitation, The Enfield Haunting, in 1977.”

Playwright Unwin commented: “Before Guy Lyon Playfair the poltergeist expert died in 2018, I spent a long afternoon with him in his basement flat in Earls Court. He and Maurice Grosse had spent months with the Hodgson family trying to protect them, but also make sense of what was going on. What Guy told me was terrifying.

“So much of what appears to have happened was impossible to fake and yet at the centre of the whole thing were real people trying to make sense of their lives. The Enfield Haunting is a psychological ghost story. It is a ghost story for now.”