Phoenix Theatre

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

From the brains of the Duffer brothers comes the stage iteration of Stranger Things – a thrilling, stunning, cinematic epic of a piece.

Set in 1959, The First Shadow takes us back to a setting familiar to any Stranger Things fans: Hawkins. There are names you’ll clock as an establishing scene by the Hawkins High lockers brings us back into the universe: Joyce Maldonado, Bob Newby, a Wheeler, a Sinclair, a Henderson, and of course a brooding teenaged Jim Hopper. It is a generation before the team that the beloved Netflix show follows in the 1980s, serving essentially as an original story for Henry Creel.

The performances are all fantastic: those playing younger versions of characters we already know do so by incorporating mannerisms we recognize (notably, I’m convinced that Christopher Buckley as Bob Newby is a young Sean Astin) while combining their own fresh spin on the character. The stand out performance comes from Louis McCartney who is electric as Henry Creel in astonishing professional debut: he is every bit mysterious, creepy yet incredibly vulnerable.

The show-stealer is the visuals: LED, projectors and stunning set pieces work seamlessly with the actors like a ballet to create the strange happenings in Hawkins. Even from the grand circle, the cinematic aesthetic, very much visually echoing its TV predecessor, is completely captivating. Huge shout out to the stage managers and operators of the show – every sound, light or image is timed with exact perfection to create breathtaking supernatural effects on stage.

The one fault of this show, for me, was the script, which at times felt like it had been written more for a feature-length TV episode of the show, rather than for the stage. There’s no doubt that writer Kate Trefry the Duffer brothers have added to their existing masterpiece here, but perhaps the added influence of experienced playwrights would’ve tweaked moments which felt unnecessarily lengthy. Although the show was utterly captivating, shaving off half an hour would’ve been welcomed and felt possible without sacrificing any moments of character development or climax.