Horror on stage is tricky. Successful full length plays in the genre are rare – 2:22: A Ghost Story and The Woman in Black spring to mind – but the genre thrives at shorter length, especially in portmanteau productions like Ghost Stories or Inside No. 9 Stage/Fright, and every year fringe festivals feature short pieces designed to send the audience home with a chill.
Now in its 20th year, The Camden Fringe offers The Midnight Caller, a 50-minute play by the multi-talented Charles Eades, presented by BlackPen Productions at the Rosemary Branch Theatre in Islington and first seen at the Red Lion in February.
Leading a North American cast is Yazmeen Enoch as Fiona, exhausted and working the nightshift at a legal firm and expecting a long, long night. Happily, there are a few calls to break the monotony. A little implausibly, the first is from a genial legal secretary, played sincerely and with warmth by Chukwuemeka Agada, who seems quick to pick up on the fact that Fiona is alone. A little too quick? Perhaps. And then there is Fiona’s bestie, an effervescent Treci Dominique, who phones to check on her friend as she knows she’s alone.
And then we reach midnight… and the midnight caller, about whom it would be wrong to say more.
Eades’ plot is far from original – echoing Scream and countless other films riffing off the infamous Columbia ‘Babysitter’ murder back in 1950 – and the office block setting for this version of that story doesn’t quite work, not in 2025 when everyone uses email and mobile phones. Nonetheless, thanks to Giulia Hallworth’s creative direction and uniformly excellent acting, The Midnight Caller feels fresh and inventive, even if it isn’t. Predictably, there is an LGBTQ+ angle and, though it feels a little laboured, Dominique makes the most of the opportunity it provides for humour. The play feels as if it would best as a one-woman show and the ending needs a little work, but overall, this is an atmospheric and entertaining 50 minutes. Recommended.
Review by Louis Mazzini
Set in the shadowy hours of a call centre night shift, The Midnight Caller follows Fiona—overworked, underpaid, and just trying to survive one more shift. But as strange calls begin coming through the line, what starts as routine customer service turns into something much more disturbing. Cryptic voices, flickering lights, and an overwhelming sense that she’s not as alone as she thought…
This tightly-wound, one-act thriller is more than just a scare. Beneath the suspense is a searing exploration of modern work culture, where youth, ambition, and vulnerability are routinely exploited. As Fiona’s night spirals into uncertainty, the play asks: how far will you go to keep your job—and what happens when the job starts taking more than just your time?
Presented by: BlackPen Productions
Written by: Charles Eades
Directed by: Giulia Hallworth
Starring: Yazmeen Enoch as Fiona, Emeka Agada as Client, Manager, and Police, and Treci Dominique as Judy
THE MIDNIGHT CALLER
Rosemary Branch Theatre, 30 July to 1 August 2025
Presented as part of The Camden Fringe
