Paranormal Activity: The Stage Awakens — Chicago Shakespeare’s Terrifying Leap Into the Unknown

When the lights go out inside Chicago Shakespeare Theater, the air itself seems to breathe. Paranormal Activity: The Stage Play isn’t just another horror adaptation — it’s an exorcism of memory, grief, and the ghosts we bring with us.

Created by Chicago playwright Levi Holloway (Broadway’s Grey House) and Felix Barrett, the visionary behind Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More, this new theatrical nightmare reimagines the world of the Paranormal Activity film franchise for the stage — and it’s every bit as unsettling as its cinematic roots.

The story follows James and Lou, a couple fleeing Chicago for a new life in London, desperate to escape their past. But as they soon learn, the horrors they’re running from aren’t tied to a place — they’re bound to people. And in this haunting world, no illusion is just a trick.

That’s where Tony Award–winning illusion designer Chris Fisher (Stranger Things: The First Shadow, Harry Potter & The Cursed Child) steps in, warping the edges of reality until even the audience starts to question what’s real. Walls shift. Shadows move. The stage becomes a living, breathing entity.

This North American premiere cements Chicago as a creative epicenter of immersive horror — an origin point before the production hits Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. later this season.

For those who dare, the Chicago Shakespeare Theater is turning the terror dial to eleven with a special Halloween double feature on Friday, October 31 — showings at 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., complete with eerie cocktails, a costume contest, and more frights than your nerves might handle.

Because in this world, places aren’t haunted — people are.

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