Review: It Walks Around at Night at Northern Stage

Invited: Reviewed by Paul Oliver on October 28, 2026

The run-up to Halloween is the perfect time of year for scary stories and It Walks Around at Night written by Tim Foley is the perfect mix of unsettling & creepy to keep audiences thoroughly entertained.

The story is told by Joe, a struggling actor played superbly by George Naylor who is engaged by a handsome stranger to spend five nights at a remote country house, dress up each night in period clothes and walk a trail through the woods around the house. Easy money he thinks, especially as he rather fancies David the house owner. However after a very unnerving first night’s walk he starts to realise there’s much more going on.

The play is largely a 1-man show and Naylor is superb at engaging the audience, telling the story and breaking the 4^th wall to tell us about the bar work that he hates, his ex “Doofus” and his thoughts about David. As the story progresses his delivery gets increasingly tense, frantic and physical as the nightly terrors intensify.

The only other performer on stage is The Dancer, performed by Oliver Baines along with a pre-recorded narration by Paul Hilton. The addition of dance and movement bring an otherworldly feel to the story and Baines makes several other appearances throughout the play however I’ll avoid spoilers!

Time Foley’s script and Neil Bettles direction keep the story moving along at a fast pace and has the audience eager to find out what happens next. The jump scares scattered throughout the show are offset by the dark humour in the story so you never know what’s coming up next.

The set design by Neil Bettles and Tom Robbins is quite minimal, with a bed and fridge on a sloping wooden floor of interior of the lodge on the country estate where Joe is staying and a suggestion of the trail that winds it way through the woods surrounding the house, Paragon Hall. The lighting and projection design by Joshua Pharo is really immersive with the back wall of the set turning into sinister woods and shifting shadows and the lighting changing effortlessly as Joe moves from day to terrifying night.

The sound design by Pete Malkin is exceptional with every little sinister noise impeccably timed, precisely placed and a complete soundscape enveloping Joe as he heads into the spooky woods. It’s clear that large amounts of thought and time have gone into the technical elements for this production and the results are well worth the effort.

For me the story works better in the early parts when the terror is unseen and the audience’s imagination conjures up terrors in the shadows. Of course this cannot last and we are gradually introduced to the source of the terror as we head towards the rather hectic conclusion of the story.

This 90 minute one-act production from the Wigan-based Thickskin theatre company is superbly engrossing and had the entire audience transfixed from start to end. It shows just how effective a simple set and small cast can be when coupled with a well-written story and carefully thought-out technical elements. If you enjoy a good supernatural thriller and aren’t put off by jump scares then this is definitely a show worth seeing.

^{Photo credit: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan}

It Walks around at Night is playing at Northern Stage until Saturday 31 October 2026, limited numbers of tickets remain and are available from https://northernstage.co.uk/whats-on/it-walks-around-the-house-at-night/