FringeReview UK 2026
It Walks Around the House at Night
ThickSkin
Venue: Southwark Playhouse Large Studio, Borough
Festival: FringeReview UK
Low Down
Tim Foley’s known for his comedic Jurassic and humour inlays horror and hearer in his It Walks Around the House at Night. Directed by ThickSkin’s Artistic Director Neil Bettles, it premiered at Chichester Festival Theatre in February. Now it arrives at Southwark Playhouse’s Borough Large Studio till March 28.
Class war meets woohoo in this clash of cultures. There’s twists up to the last moment. And a mobile phone can spell magical revenge. Highly recommended.
Review
“So I bet like me you’re thinking….. It’s a really big head, with legs!” Tim Foley’s known for his comedic Jurassic and humour inlays horror and hearer in his It Walks Around the House at Night. Directed by ThickSkin’s Artistic Director Neil Bettles, it premiered at Chichester Festival Theatre in February. Now it arrives at Southwark Playhouse’s Borough Large Studio till March 28.
Class war meets woohoo in this clash of cultures. Out-of-work actor Joe (George Naylor) affably narrates what appears as a one-man show, the kind of “don’t believe in ghosts” variety, with a striking design. Neil Bettles and Tom Robbins’ set seems plain enough with bed and standard lamp set in a grungy old lodge with a fridge opposite. Upstage though there’s a liminal video, and other effects lit by sJoshua Pharo and an impressive sound design by Peter Malkin kick in. It includes the imperatives of Paul Hilton’s voice. This might seem a cut-down of other shows that go bump in the night, but this has bounce and super-slickness, with surprises.
Based in Wigan ThickSkin has a refreshing levelling feel which is doubly welcome, when so many ghost-haunted people are middle-class or lack agency. Wigan’s where the Diggers’ Gerard Winstanley hailed from, and Ranter Laurence Clarkson; and where Orwell once ended up. Foley’s writing fits and Joe is clearly a north-west dweller. Thus it’s not only a tale freighted with duplicity but poverty and anger. All this plays a crucial part in a conspiracy that takes bearings from other tales but is different. Joe’s not alone. Not just in a spooky sense, but his bar manager Gabby, her new squeeze Andrea, refuse to go away. And Rufus, or (as Joe dismisses him) Dufus, who Joe breaks up with, is also layered in class toxicity.
There’s gratifying elements of unreliable witness here, though mainly to do with Joe’s relations with others. Though there’s a few non-sequitors from Joe’s past too. Joe’s terminally irritated at even Rufus manging to get a small part in Bridgerton because his father, a Baron, knows the producers and of course it’s connections that get you in. This drama s all about making pacts and Joe’s made one before now. Harmless decent Rufus though is more sympathetic than occasionally vengeful Joe. But Foley’s witty narrator engages us even when he does something you think dodgy. And it’s others who act far more duplicitously.
Naylor is superb. From a flick of the head, to the way he breaks lines, flicks a verb or incomplete sentence, switches from engaging smile to contempt: he’s ideal and his performance is a bravura blaze of thwarted talented actor going to seed. Naylor too exults in the teetering from horror to comedy the writer of Jurassic brings.
Recruited by one bar regular, David Linden, a posh man with a sheen whom Joe takes a fancy to, Joe’s tasked to mimic a ghost in a ghost-walk. That’s four or five times round Paragon Hall, an Elizabethan manor: owned by lord-of-the-manor Lindon himself. It’s apparently for a couple of stayover nieces to be terrified or entertained. Gabby clearly dislikes David but Joe rather drools over him. Each successive walk though is increasingly disturbing. Joe’s instructed never to turn back, for instance, and not take his phone. When he does both it becomes even more disturbing. David ups his fees. But then there’s this old man, flitting about. Joe’s on his phone to Gabby, loses his cool with Andrea and says unforgivable things. He finds he’s phoned Rufus after a truly disturbing night.
Who are the servants and who the masters? Joe, clearly, is cast as a servant in a lord’s clothes. Here though, the usual marooned status of a whodunnit or ghost story is pierced. The forgiving Gabby puts Joe onto PhD writing sleuth Andrea, with more than a drop on Paragon Hall. There’s disappearances and the opposite. David is increasingly demanding. A word should be put in for Oliver Baines. “Those Bastards in our Mansions/Those Bastards in Our Theatres” becomes as we discover a rallying cry.
There’s twists up to the last moment. In a tale that could have gone all Wicker Man where everyone conspires against you, It Walks… refuses such noirish outcomes: because it’s not entirely a horror-genre piece. There’s the darkest supernatural horrors there all right, but friends with fringe benefits you’ve never met or dreamed of assemble offstage. Spellchecking as Joe finds out isn’t an App. And a mobile phone can spell magical revenge. Highly recommended.
Design Associate (Costume)Madison Omatseone, Associate Director Anna Berentzen, Sound Associate Kieran Lucas, Dramaturg Brendan Macdonald, Casting Director Claire Bleasdale.
ThickSkin Team: Executive Producer Laura Mallows, Head of Marketing & Audiences Iain Christie, Senior Producer Steph Connell, Associate Producer Abi Beaven, Assistant Producer Rae Bell, Jerwood Associate Artist Anna Berentzen.
