Entertainment

‘Medical emergencies’ tackled at Olivier-winning play Stranger Things

Stranger Things: The First Shadow is based on the hit Netflix series.

(2nd left to right) Stephen Daldry, Kate Trefry, Justin Martin and Sonia Friedman were presented with the best new entertainment or comedy play Olivier
(2nd left to right) Stephen Daldry, Kate Trefry, Justin Martin and Sonia Friedman were presented with the best new entertainment or comedy play Olivier (Ian West/PA)

A producer behind the Olivier-winning play version of Stranger Things said the theatre has had to deal with “medical emergencies” in the audience.

Sonia Friedman, who produced the hit play Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, was behind the show which won best new entertainment or comedy play at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday.

She said that the “intensive” immersive experience of Stranger Things: The First Shadow, which serves as a prequel to the Netflix series, can cause issues.

“The medical emergencies (in the audience) have been dealt with and they’re fine, everyone’s been fine,” Friedman told the PA news agency in the winners’ room.

Justin Martin, who served as co-director to director Stephen Daldry, told the PA news agency that there are “jump scares” in the series but also “moments of real heart and love and humour” which the play has as well.

Stranger Things: The First Shadow by Kate Trefry at the Phoenix Theatre also won best set design.

Trefry said: “I do want to say when I got hired to this job, I was like eight months pregnant and I wrote a lot of it in my father in law’s shed in Alaska in the freezing cold with a little heater and that was the only place I could go and we’re gonna make a little plaque for the show.”