Clearly labelled with the distinctive red typeface and identifying music, this is very much part of the Netflix sci-fi series.
Fans of Stranger Things who are flocking to see it will find plenty to please them, but you don’t have to be a Netflix addict to understand it, for this is a prequel that goes back to events in fictional Hawkins, Indiana in 1959 when characters in the series were still at High School, more than 20 years before when series one was set. In fact, a prologue to the prequel goes back even further to a mythical US Navy wartime experiment at making a ship disappear that kicks off the special effects that are a stunning feature of this production.
At Hawkins High, Joyce Maldonado (Isabella Pappas), whose dream is being a stage director, is casting her fellow pupils in a school show. Outsiders think it is going to be Oklahoma! but she is planning a production of Dark of the Moon, a play about a witch boy. Fellow pupil Bob Newby (Christopher Buckley), who is a radio nerd who has set up his own local station, has fallen for her.
Series regulars will know their older selves, and that of classmate Jim Hopper (Oscar Lloyd), whose dad (whom he doesn’t get on with) is the local police chief. Bob has an adopted sister Patty (Ella Karuna Williams), a new character, who befriends newcomer to Hawkins Henry Creel (Louis McCartney). His family’s move was motivated by an unexplained incident that involved him where they used to live. There is something different about Henry, something he doesn’t yet understand.
Strange things are happening in Hawkins: pets being found dead, interference with broadcast signals and electricity supply. It is decidedly spooky, and Joyce, Bob and Jim set out to find what the cause is. Henry tries to help Patty trace her mother, but events see him becoming an object of study for sinister scientist Dr Brenner (Patrick Vaill).
There is a lot packed into the three hours that Stranger Things: The First Shadow plays (including interval), and sometimes it seems there is an information overload, but every moment grabs your attention as you try to sort out what is going on. Though the production is packed with great effects, there is also an attention to detail that makes it really work, whether the glimpse of Joyce’s revolutionary politics or the myriad spiders suddenly released out of jars in the Creels' creepy attic.
It is a strong cast throughout, especially those already named. It is difficult to believe that both Ella Karuna Williams and Louis McCartney are making their profession stage debuts, they do so so effectively, McCartney especially producing a quivering reality.
The illusions, visual effects and video design of Jamie Harrison, Chris Fisher and 59 Productions have a cinematic magic. This isn’t raw theatre asking the audience’s imagination to do the work but, framed by Miriam Buether’s set with a revolve and scenic elements moving in plain sight, Stephen Daltry’s direction places it firmly in a theatre with the extra frisson of a live show and that vital contact between actors and audience.