‘Stranger Things’ Play Breakdown: How ‘The First Shadow’ Explains Vecna’s Origins and Sets Up the Final Season
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SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for “Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” now playing on London’s West End.
“Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” a prequel play to Netflix’s hit sci-fi series, officially opened on London’s West End on Thursday night. Coming straight from the “Stranger Things” creative team — with a script by series writer and co-executive producer Kate Trefry from an original story by Trefry and show creators Matt and Ross Duffer — the play is a direct link to the Upside Down viewers know and love. Except this time, the audience is transported back to the 1950s to bear witness to the antics of a different group of teenagers: The Party’s parents.
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Directed by Stephen Daldry, “The First Shadow” focuses on Joyce Maldonado (Isabella Pappas), a spunky teen known for dating bad boys like Lonnie Byers but whose true passion is theater; James Hopper Jr. (Oscar Lloyd), the police chief’s rebellious son; and Bob Newby (Christopher Buckley), a nerdy outcast who is hopelessly in love with Joyce. Joyce and Hopper, of course, are the younger versions of the show’s lead adults characters played by Winona Ryder and David Harbour, who was in attendance at the premiere of “The First Shadow” on Thursday. And poor, doomed Bob was featured on “Stranger Things 2,” as played poignantly by Sean Astin.
When Joyce decides to put on a play (very meta) to try to earn a scholarship to a college in Indianapolis, her classmates band together to help her, including some familiar names: Charles Sinclair and Sue Anderson (who eventually become Lucas’ parents), Ted Wheeler and Karen Childress (Mike’s eventual parents), Walter Henderson and Claudia Yount (Dustin’s parents) and Alan Munson (Eddie’s father). New kid in town Henry Creel (Louis McCartney) is cast as the lead alongside the newly created character of Patty Newby (Ella Karuna Williams), Bob’s adopted sister.
As is often inevitable within high school theater, Henry and Patty strike up a romantic relationship. The two bond over comic books and feeling like outsiders — Henry because of his dark past, and Patty because she doesn’t know who her mother is. Henry, we eventually learn, disappeared for 12 hours in the Nevada desert as a child, and now has an inexplicable connection to another dimension that results in psychokinetic abilities. His family moved to Hawkins because he was kicked out of his old school for severely hurting another student. As a result, his mother Virginia (Lauren Ward) constantly worries about him, while his father Victor (Michael Jibson), who suffers from World War II-related PTSD, blames himself and drinks the pain away. Meanwhile, Henry finds it harder and harder to control his urge to kill. As his connection with Patty blossoms, Henry offers to try and help her find her mother using his abilities, but this only seems to give this shadow-like entity — the Mind Flayer — more power over him.
When neighborhood pets start dying of mysterious — and gory — circumstances, Joyce, Hopper and Bob take it upon themselves to save Hawkins. They single out Victor as their main suspect, and set an elaborate plan to catch him at the opening night of Joyce’s play. Since Henry is one of the play’s stars, his father has to show up, right? But, it all goes haywire when Henry is nowhere to be found.
Instead, Henry has been taken to the Hawkins National Laboratory by none other than Dr. Martin Brenner (Patrick Vaill) after his mother expressed heightened concern for the safety of those around him. After witnessing his powers, Dr. Brenner tries to recruit Henry for a sinister experiment — but Henry refuses to participate, wanting desperately to be normal. Fueled by his love for Patty, he escapes from the lab. But after learning of his mother’s betrayal, he first kills her and his sister. Tragedy nearly strikes again leading up to the final act of the play, when Henry inadvertently causes an accident that badly injures Patty after Brenner tracks him down at the school.
Time then flashes forward, and we see that Patty survived and found her mother, and that Henry is back in Dr. Brenner’s lab, assisting him with an experiment involving child test subjects — one of whom is No. 11 — solidifying his future as Season 4 antagonist Vecna. “Stranger Things” fans know that these characters will eventually be played by Matthew Modine (Dr. Brenner, aka “Papa”); Jamie Campbell Bower, who plays Vecna in “Stranger Things 4” and Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven, who is Vecna’s greatest threat, and Hawkins’ (and the world’s?) only hope. (Modine also attended the West End premiere Thursday night.)
Joyce and Hopper meet again at Melvald’s — which at this point in time is a diner, not yet a general store — where Joyce, who is now back with Lonnie, works as a waitress. Hopper has joined the police force, and announces that he is heading to basic Army training to fight in Vietnam and finally prove himself to his dad. As “Stranger Things” fans know, it will only be a matter of time before the two must band together once again when Joyce’s son, Will, suddenly goes missing.
But it’s not only the storyline that connects “The First Shadow” to the “Stranger Things” world. The play’s impressive special effects and theatrical illusions, resulting in many gasps — and even screams — make it an incredibly immersive experience that will leave viewers awestruck. In his review, Variety‘s David Benedict called the play a “visceral, live hit of the show’s successful comedy-horror-sci-fi combination,” concluding that it has “the feeling of a major hit.”
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