Skeleton is a new one-woman horror play, written and performed by Lucy Spreckley, which delivers some intriguing and spooky thrills.
At its best moments, Skeleton is atmospheric, unsettling, and creepy. Spreckley’s script does an excellent job of keeping the audience slightly disorientated, by drip feeding just the right amount of information to keep us intrigued and wanting to know more, without leaving us totally confused. Uncomfortable descriptions of childhood trauma are sprinkled in with just the right amount of frequency to gradually build a sense of mystery and dread. Lloyd Smith’s direction makes effective use of sound and lighting design to enhance this sense of dread further. Spreckley’s performance is solid; she equally effectively portrays emotional vulnerability, panicked terror, and dry, sardonic humour.
Sadly, the play takes a long time to reach its stride, and then it ends abruptly. Much of the runtime is devoted to elaborately describing the circumstances that led the protagonist to arrive at a pirate-themed birthday party in Crystal Palace, little of which is relevant to the main thrust of the plot, although it does give us a chance to get to know the character before things get creepy. This section is indistinguishable from the innumerable other solo theatre shows about slightly awkward 20-something-year-olds navigating life in London while grappling with past trauma.
After some genuinely spooky and suspenseful moments, the play then ends abruptly, and significantly earlier than promised by its supposed 60-minute runtime. The ending leaves many questions unanswered. For some of these questions, just enough clues have been sprinkled in to allow the audience to ponder and theorise about what the answer may be. But other questions are frustratingly open-ended.
Overall, Skeleton has the bones of a compelling and spooky play, and was competently performed and directed, but the script lacked focus. With some re-writing and editing, it could make a very effective horror play.
Reviewer: Charles Edward Pipe
Reviewed: 19th October 2025
North West End UK Rating:
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