Tuesday 3rd February–Saturday 28th February 2026 sees ThickSkin tour the country spreading chills down the spine with this exceptional ghost story.
Behind the hit shows Driftwood and How Not To Drown, ThickSkin is recognised nationally for championing exceptional talent in the NorthWest, with this latest production – written by the talented Manchester-based playwright Tim Foley (Electric Rosary, Royal Exchange Theatre & Bruntwood Prize Winner; Driftwood, and many more. (below)
Injected with dark humour throughout, It Walks Around The House At Night promises to terrify audiences. George Naylor (Second Best, Riverside Studios; The Mousetrap, West End and UK Tour; Room13, The Barn Theatre) plays Joe, an out-of-work actor,who in a state of desperation, takes on a job playing a ghost at an old countryside manor. Out of money and options, Joe mistakenly accepts a rich handsome stranger’s offer of an unusual yet well-paid gig during another dull shift at the bar. Expecting nothing more than a few cheap scares, Joe soon uncovers the nightmarish terrors roaming the haunted grounds at night.
Joined by Oliver Baines (The House Party, Chichester Festival Theatre and Headlong; Frantic Assembly’s Othello, UK Tour; I Like The Way You Move, Theatre Peckham), as The Dancer, It Walks Around The House At Night delivers a ghost story brimming with jump scares and spine-tingling moments.
Tim Foley comments, ‘I’m so delighted to be working with ThickSkin again after our hit with Driftwood. This time we’re making a horror show full of shocks and scares, something I’ve always wanted to do. How can a company that’s so lovely make work that’s so terrifying? This is the best kind of theatre with the best kind of theatre-makers.’
Directed by ThickSkin’s acclaimed Artistic Director Neil Bettles (How Not To Drown, UK Tour; Disney’s Bedknobs & Broomsticks, UK & Ireland Tour; The Unreturning; Frantic Assembly),the eerie atmosphere is created by Tony Award Winning sound designer Pete Malkin (Othello, National Theatre; Complicité’s The Encounter, Barbican Theatre & European Tour; Let The Right One In, Royal Exchange Theatre) and Olivier Award Winning lighting designer Joshua Pharo (Wolf Witch Giant Fairy, Royal Opera House; Noughts And Crosses, Regent’s Park Theatre; Hot Wing King, National Theatre)
Neil Bettles, director of It Walks Around The House At Night and Artistic Director of ThickSkin, shares, ‘I’m excited to share this twisted new ghost story with our friends across the country. It’s a thrilling and complex play about power and manipulation that will send a shiver up the strongest of spines. Based in Wigan, ThickSkin has built a reputation across the UK for high quality, inventive touring productions. They are well known locally and nationally for work that blends new writing, movement and design to present extraordinary stories in unexpected ways.‘ For information of ThickSkin and the tour dates and venues:here