Dare to discover 2:22: A Ghost Story

Starring as Jenny in the 2026 UK tour of 2:22: A Ghost Story, Shvorne Marks previously played Lauren opposite Stacey Dooley on the 2025 tour and was thrilled with the reaction that Danny Robins’ edge-of-the-seat thriller triggers in theatregoers.

“It has such a massive following,” she marvels. “Many people have seen it loads of times already and they keep coming back for more. It really makes you jump, and to hear them screaming in the audience is brilliant. You get that nervous laughter from people who have just been jolted out of their skin and, without giving spoilers, I’ve seen them crying too. During the scene changes you can hear the audience members talking to each other and trying to work out what they think is going on. It’s electrifying and exciting.”

Premiering in 2021, 2:22 is a chilling and gripping thriller revolving around young mother Jenny and her husband Sam (James Bye), who have recently moved into a house that they are in the process of renovating.

Every night at precisely 2.22am they hear strange, scary sounds, and Jenny is convinced the house is haunted but Sam is having none of it. When their old friend Lauren (Natalie Casey) and her new partner Ben (Grant Kilburn) come round for dinner belief and scepticism clash and they agree to stay up until 2:22 to try and find out what’s really going on.

Shvorne describes Jenny as a kind, caring, smart, funny woman who has nonetheless lost her way a little. “Her husband Sam is very intelligent and very opinionated, and he has sort of overshadowed her. She’s navigating who she is and trying to find her feet as a mother in a new home. There’s a lot of changes for her to contend with.” Shvorne laughs. “Oh, and she thinks there’s a ghost in the house!”

Shvorne was a series regular on Endeavour and has also appeared in Breeders, Get Millie Back and Three Little Birds, while her stage CV includes Beautiful Thing, The Women of Llanrumney and A Profoundly Affectionate, Passionate Devotion to Someone.

With 2:22 she’s excited to be switching roles for the 2026 tour, saying: “I planted the seed of me playing Jenny when I saw Stacey in the rehearsal room and thought ‘I could do that role and I could have a lot of fun with it’. Without blowing my own trumpet, I’m pretty versatile. The great thing about Danny’s writing is that he leaves room for you to bring your own take to the material. He gives you room to play, so my Jenny is very different to Stacey’s.”

Jenny is on team believe when it comes to ghosts and the supernatural, and so is Shvorne. “I’m not messing with the ghosts, man!” she declares, adding that she had “a weird experience” when she was performing at the Theatre Royal Stratford East.

“There was an area in the green room that I feel was someone’s home,” she elaborates. “I was talking with one of the other actors about whether or not we thought the theatre was haunted, and we both looked at each other and went ‘water cooler’. I hadn’t told anyone but every time I went to the water cooler in that room I just felt that there was another spirit around me, and so did she.”

As she joins the UK tour of 2:22: A Ghost Story, Natalie Casey describes her character, Lauren, as “somebody who is very stoic and very intelligent but also she seems to live her life dependent on what other people think of her”.

Casey points out: “What’s interesting about the play is that it’s about the supernatural, of course, but it’s also about the ghosts of our past in terms of the characters’ relationships. It’s about the things that we never said, the things we wish we’d said and the people we wished we’d become.”

When it comes to ghosts and the supernatural, is she on team sceptic or team believe? “Actually, I’m team science! If at some point somebody can lay it out in front of me with empirical proof then I will believe. All I know is I’ve never seen anything like that and I’ve never felt anything like that, but I absolutely and fully support people who say that they have.”

Casey came to fame in 1996 as Carol Groves on Hollyoaks and recalls: “It was a real learning curve, like college but with money! I learned about how you should behave in a company of people, about what it means to turn up to somewhere on time and what it means to learn your lines and be professional.”

She went on to star in Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps and has worked extensively on stage. If she had to pick any highlights Abigail’s Party would be right up there. “It was a seminal piece of British theatre that resonated with so many people,” she says.