The Enfield Haunting - Brighton / Richmond / Ambassadors

Well, we went to see this tonight, booked yonks ago on the strength of it being Catherine Tate and a ghost story. I’d skimmed the odd whisper of it being rubbish so avoided reviews as best I could.

It was just…..well it happened, but I couldn’t tell you what the story actually was. There was no narrative to follow, no stakes to care about, no conflict to resolve. People walked on and off stage and talked to each other about “what was going on”, a couple of things actually did “go on”, but mostly it was just people talking, telling you about things that had happened rather than showing you things happening, IYSWIM?

I’m really confused as to why Catherine Tate has done this play. She’s a cracking actor and this gave her nothing to do apart from say “my kids” and “it’s my house” in various ways. I mean she did that fine, but the initial gag of her neighbour coming in and her doing a jump scare response was the peak of her performance, for the rest of the play, she was just there.

The set was visually impressive, but the upstairs section was largely out of view. My partner and I being children of the late 70s/early 80s did enjoy the period-appropriate set dressing. My mum had that laundry basket and the old branding on the quality street tin was spot on.

2* from me, because the effects were good, and the performances were fine, but unfortunately there was just no story for them to actually perform 🤣

Arifa liked this? She normally hates everything.

I think it’s also fair to say that nobody really ever signs on for a project they think will be ripped to shreds by both audiences and critics. I’d be very interested to know what Tate especially, saw in this project.

On paper it was probably an attractive gig right? Fun story, good co-star, a tryout close to home then a run in the West End? Sounds like a good job to me. Maybe she signed up before the script was finished...

I'd say it is highly likely that her contract includes a slice of the box office, so such commitment might not be particularly altruistic. 

£600k would be a lot of one person. I wonder if she meant £60,000 a week which is still a lot for one person.

A "name" star is often contracted to do press for the show also.

I just saw that too! Surely not? I mean maybe that's what she's getting paid for the entire run all together and she means she gets paid it as a weekly salary? So if it's 20 weeks for example that's £30k per week?

For a name guaranteed to sell out a show it potentially can be, yes. But I just suggested 20 weeks at £30k as a feasible way of dividing £600k. I don't know the actual duration of her contract.