Melting Pot/Paranormal Activity, based on Paramount Pictures Paranormal Activity films, written by Levi Holloway, directed by Felix Barrett, CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, closes July 5. Tickets here.
“Places aren’t haunted, people are.”
With that chilling tagline, audiences are being lured into Paranormal Activity, the stage play currently haunting the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre.
Background of the Play
The play began at the Leeds Playhouse in 2024 and moved to a successful West End run before jumping the Atlantic for a North American tour.
That tour ends in Toronto, after which the production heads to Boston for a pre-Broadway engagement ahead of its planned Broadway opening in August.
The Paranormal Activity Film Universe
The lineage of Paranormal Activity is far older than this play.
It began as a small film made by Oren Peli for the festival circuit in 2007 on a minuscule budget of $15,000 and shot primarily in Peli’s own house.
The story concerned a suburban couple, the woman having experienced paranormal activity all her life. In an effort to capture evidence of the haunting, her husband sets up a video camera trained on their bedroom at night. Presented largely through this found footage, the film achieved a startling sense of realism.
It proved such a success on the festival circuit that it received a wide theatrical release in 2009 and ultimately grossed $193 million worldwide.
That success spawned an entire franchise:
Paranormal Activity 2, 3 and 4, followed by Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, and Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin. Another installment is reportedly in development.
So when I say there is a Paranormal Activity universe, I am not kidding.
The English Play
In a way, this English production expands the Paranormal Activity universe, because playwright Levi Holloway has come up with a completely original storyline. The program cover bills the show as “A New Story Live on Stage,” and that is exactly what audiences get.
In this version, James (Patrick Heusinger) and Lou (Melissa James) have moved from Chicago to London after James’s work transfers him there. The action takes place entirely in their house, where there are plenty of things that go bump in the night.
Holloway retains the basic idea of a couple alone in a house, but from that starting point his imagination creates a very different scenario from the film. It is also a very clever one.
The audience does scream and jump, and I can attest that the play is filled with scary illusions, startling tricks and any number of surprises.
Without giving away any of the plot, suffice it to say that there is plenty here to make the stage play worth a visit for anyone who enjoys chills and thrills.
Holloway really delivers.
Other Characters
Lou is an avid listener to the podcasts of Etheline Cotgrave (Jackie Morrison), a British psychic, and when things begin to go seriously wrong in the house, the couple call upon her to see what she can make of the situation.
James, meanwhile, is very much a mama’s boy and is forever talking to his mother, Carolanne (Pippa Winslow), in Florida.
Also in the cast is Toronto teenager Eva Grieg, who is listed as Ensemble and helps bring off some of the production’s physical illusions.
The Cast
The English producers are clearly taking this Broadway transfer seriously because they have retained the four principal actors from the original Leeds and West End productions.
This is the real McCoy, and the cast is absolutely solid from top to bottom.
Patrick Heusinger as James is the heart of the show, conveying just the right balance of concern for his wife and growing unease for himself. I found him completely believable and his build to hysteria is pitch perfect.
Melissa James makes Lou hauntingly vulnerable as the woman at the centre of the paranormal activity. Her fear and uncertainty help ground the increasingly strange events in emotional reality.
Pippa Winslow as James’s mother Carolanne, seen via video calls, is suitably overbearing and determined to keep her son firmly attached to her apron strings. As well, the character does provide some welcome comic relief.
I should mention that the American accents are a marvel.
Then there is Jackie Morrison as the earnest British psychic Etheline Cotgrave. In some ways she recalls Madame Arcati from Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit, bringing both conviction and a touch of eccentricity to the proceedings.
One of the pleasures of the evening is Levi Holloway’s writing. The dialogue feels natural and unforced, with genuine humour woven into the exchanges between James and Lou and between James and his mother.
That naturalism helps make the increasingly implausible events seem all the more real.
The Production
Fly Davis designed both the set and costumes, and the set is the house itself. The ground floor contains the kitchen and living room, while upstairs are the bedroom, bathroom and spare room.
Lighting designer Anna Watson has done a remarkable job. The practical lighting is crucial to the flow of traffic through the house, and Watson ensures that every lamp and light serves both a realistic and theatrical purpose.
Special kudos, however, belong to director Felix Barrett for his pacing and overall vision, and to sound designer Gareth Fry, video designer Luke Halls and, particularly, illusion designer Chris Fisher.
Working together, they have harnessed modern technology to make the stage play work in a genuinely frightening way. Their contributions are central to creating the shocks, surprises and supernatural effects that keep audiences on edge throughout the evening.
End Note
If you have seen any part of the Paranormal Activity movie universe, this stage play offers a completely new story.
And, if you have never encountered Paranormal Activity before but enjoy an entertaining, if decidedly scary, theatrical adventure, then this production is also for you.
“Enjoy” may not be quite the right word when you have spent much of the evening being startled out of your seat, but Paranormal Activity is certainly a memorable visit to the theatre.
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