A new chilling ghost story is set to spread terror across the UK

Award-winning theatre company ThickSkin take their theatrical horror It Walks Around The House At Night on UK tour

Spreading atmospheric horror across the country, chilling ghost story It Walks Around The House At Night, presented by the award-winning theatre company ThickSkin, embarks on a UK tour.  Behind the hit shows Driftwood and How Not To Down, ThickSkin is recognised nationally for championing exceptional talent in the North West, with this latest production written by the talented Manchester-based playwright Tim Foley (Electric Rosary, Royal Exchange Theatre & Bruntwood Prize Winner; Driftwood, UK Tour; Doctor Who audio series, Big Finish Productions). 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; Room 13, 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, writer of It Walks Around The House At Night, 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.

It Walks Around The House At Night 

Tour Dates 2026

3rd– 7th February 2026 Chichester Festival Theatre Tickets

10th – 11th February 2026 New Wolsey Theatre Ipswich Tickets

13th February 2026 Watford Palace Theatre Tickets

18th – 19th February 2025 The Arc Stockton On Tees Tickets

20th – 21st February 2026 Theatre By The Lake Keswick Tickets

27th – 28th February 2026 Leeds Playhouse Tickets

Running Time 80 minutes (no interval) 

Cast 

Joe George Naylor (he/him), The Dancer Oliver Baines (he/him) 

Creatives 

Writer Tim Foley, Director Neil Bettles, Sound Designer Pete Malkin Lighting Designer Joshua Pharo, Set Design Neil Bettles & Tom Robbins, Design Associate (Costume) Madi Omatseone

Associate Director Anna Berentzen, Sound Associate Kieran Lucas, Dramaturg Brendan Macdonald, Casting Director Claire Bleasdale, Executive Producer Laura Mallows, Senior Producer Steph Connell, Associate Producer Abi Beaven, 

Age Guidance Suitable for ages 14+  

Content Warnings Loud and sudden noises, haze, flashing lights, occasional strong  language, horror imagery and jump scares. 

Website thickskintheatre.co.uk

Socials @thickskintheatre 

ThickSkin on Demand Thickskintheatre.co.uk/on-demand