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Stacey Dooley and Kevin Clifton star in 2:22 at Sunderland

Photograph by Helen Murray

Runaway Entertainment has today released the rehearsal images of the 2025 cast for the UK tour of the smash hit, supernatural thriller 2:22 - A Ghost Story visiting Sunderland Empire from Monday 8 – Saturday 13 September 2025.

The tour will see Kevin Clifton as Sam, Stacey Dooley as Jenny, Grant Kilburn as Ben and Shvorne Marks in the role of Lauren. Kilburn returns to the role having understudied on the 2023 tour and the 2023 Apollo Theatre West End season covering for Ricky Champ and Clifford Samuel. 

 

2:22 - A Ghost Story will embark on an extensive UK-wide tour, opening at Manchester Opera House on 4 August 2025, and continuing through to November 2025.

 

2:22 - A Ghost Story’s phenomenal success includes three years in the West End over seven seasons. There have been twelve replica productions worldwide and the show has been seen by over 1 million people in seventeen different countries across 5 continents.

 

In 2023/24 2:22 - A Ghost Story embarked on its first extensive, hugely successful UK tour. For 2025/26 the production is back on the road revisiting some cities due to popular demand and also visiting new places where audiences can enjoy the thrill the show delivers for the very first time! 

 

The production began its life in the summer of 2021 at the Noel Coward Theatre, starring Lily Allen, Julia Chan, Hadley Fraser and Jake Wood, and where it won the WhatsOnStage award for Best Play. It then transferred to the Gielgud Theatre for 10 weeks from 4 December 2021. The production there starring Stephanie Beatriz, James Buckley, Elliot Cowan and Giovanna Fletcher completed its run on 12 February 2022. For the first season at the Criterion (May - September 2022) the cast was Tom Felton, Mandip Gill, Sam Swainsbury and Beatriz Romilly. In late September that year Laura Whitmore, Matt Willis, Felix Scott and Tamsin Carroll took over. At The Lyric Theatre from January - April 2023 the cast included Cheryl, Scott Karim, Louise Ford and the return of Jake Wood. The production then moved next door to the Apollo where the cast included Sophia Bush, Ricky Champ, Clifford Samuel and Jamie Winstone. Frankie Bridge took over from Sophia Bush in July of that year. Then in May - August 2024 the show returned to the Gielgud Theatre with Donna Air, James Buckley, Stacey Dooley and Joe McFadden.

 

For its first UK tour the 2023 cast featured Joe Absolom, Charlene Boyd, Nathaniel Curtis and Louisa Lytton and the second leg in 2024 saw Vera Chok, Jay McGuiness, George Rainsford and Fiona Wade take up the roles. In summer 2024 a run at the 3Olympia Theatre in Dublin Ireland tour featured the return of Laura Whitmore (this time playing Lauren) with Shona McGarty, Jay McGuiness, and Colin O’Donoghue.

 

2:22 is written by award-winning writer Danny Robins, creator of the hit BBC podcast and TV series Uncanny, and is directed by Gabriel Vega Weissman; it’s an adrenaline-filled night where secrets emerge and ghosts may or may not appear…

 

What do you believe? And do you dare discover the truth?

 

“THERE’S SOMETHING IN OUR HOUSE. I HEAR IT EVERY NIGHT, AT THE SAME TIME"

 

Jenny believes her new home is haunted, but her husband Sam isn’t having any of it. They argue with their first dinner guests, old friend Lauren and new partner Ben. Can the dead really walk again? Belief and scepticism clash, but something feels strange and frightening, and that something is getting closer, so they’re going to stay up... until 2:22... and then they’ll know.

 

A slick, chilling, romp of a play” The Guardian

“A modern classic” Sunday Times


2:22 - A Ghost Story features set design by Anna Fleischle, costume design by Cindy Lin, lighting design by Lucy Carter, sound by Ian Dickinson for Autograph Sound and illusions by Chris Fisher. 2:22 - A Ghost Story is produced by Tristan Baker and Charlie Parsons for Runaway Entertainment, Isobel David and Kater Gordon.

 

2:22 - A Ghost Story will hit Sunderland Empire’s stage from Monday 8 – Saturday 13 September 2025. Tickets available online now at ATGTickets.com/ Sunderland*

 

* A £3.95 transaction fee may apply to online bookings.

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