Laura Whitmore more nervous for Olympia than West End

Irish TV presenter and actress Laura Whitmore has said felt “more nervous” ahead of her play 2:22 A Ghost Story opening at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre than she did at London’s West End, as she is performing in front of “a home crowd”.

The Bray native made her theatre debut in the London production as Jenny and has now stepped into the role of Lauren for the Dublin run of shows.

She appears alongside EastEnders star Shona McGarty as Jenny, Jay McGuiness of boy band The Wanted as Ben, and The Tudors actor Colin O’Donoghue as Sam.

Speaking to RTÉ’s Evelyn O’Rourke on-stage at the Olympia, Whitmore said the play was “a thriller, it’s jumpy”, and added, it “raises a lot of questions”.

“Everyone will take something different [from it], whether you believe in ghosts or don’t, you might come away feeling different,” she explained.

The TV star who lives in London, said it’s “so lovely” to bring the play to Ireland as she hasn’t “been home for this long in about 15 years”.

“I go home for Christmas every now and then for a week, but this is an eight-week run so it’s such a fantastic opportunity,” she said.

“I was a bit nervous at first, probably more nervous for this more so than the West End, because it’s the home crowd. Probably every single aunty and uncle will come to this one! The reactions have blown me away this week. It’s quite a long stint for a play in Dublin and I’m just so excited to be here and have my whole family over.”

She added: “Isn’t live great, it’s such a special experience, and I think particularly with the Irish audience, we love a story, we’re all storytellers. And that’s what it is, a really good story that you get to experience with us in this one space.”

Her co-star McGuiness said the Olympia theatre is “perfectly designed” for this play.

“It’s so gorgeous, it looks like a chocolate box, all this design is so beautiful,” he said. “The best thing about it, which really suits this play, is you’ve got these levels and people the furthest at the back are still so close, they’re really on top of us.

“They’re really watching and studying, so it has a constant pressure, a really good pressure that you have to be completely natural, and not give things away, and stay in it as much as you can.

“It’s perfectly designed, we’re really in it together here.”

Whitmore continued: “And it’s the history, you go into the bar and see the pictures on the walls of all the different plays and Irish legends…

“I grew up here, my aunty worked here her whole life, my brother worked in the Olympia, I spent so much of my childhood at gigs here, seeing plays, and now I get to perform here for eight weeks.

“I couldn’t think of a better place to be doing this show.”

Drogheda-born O’Donoghue, who has also starred in Once Upon A Time, The Right Stuff and The Gray House, told O’Rourke that there’s “nothing like live theatre, the energy is different”.

He said of the play: “There’s frights, there’s jumps, there’s a lot of laughter, it’s really funny at points.

“It’s different every night with the audience. We feed off the energy that we’re getting from the audience.”

Similarly to Whitmore, the actor relished the opportunity to work in Dublin.

“I don’t get a chance to work at home much,” he said. “I’ve been lucky enough to travel quite a bit for work.

“It’s nice to be able to drive home and sleep in my own bed, wake up and see my kids in the morning and make them breakfast.”

English actress Shona McGarty, known for playing Whitney Dean in EastEnders, said that appearing in this play is “very different” to the BBC soap, but that it appealed to her as she loves “anything to do with the paranormal”.

Speaking about working in theatre she said: “So many of my colleagues have done it and they’ve told me they’ve had the best time, and reading the script, it’s such a clever show. And the cast are amazing, they’re lovely.”

O’Donoghue added with a smile: “We danced around last night to Prince and Earth, Wind and Fire so it doesn’t get any better than that!”

2:22 A Ghost Story will run at Dublin’s 3Olympia Theatre from 20 June to 11 August.