The intimate uptown space that Off Broadway’s Second Stage Theater uses for experimental projects is appropriately set for a good ghost story. Kris Stone has designed a wraparound set of weathered wooden planks to suggest an old barn in rural Virginia, and Broken Chord has supplied the surround-sound of cicadas and tree frogs and other creatures that come out at night to let us know that we’re deep in the woods — alone.

Carl Tapp (John Doman), a garrulous old ghost hunter who just loves to hear himself talk (and talk and talk), is sitting on a camp chair having a beer and bending the ear of an attentive journalist named Kim (Soule), who is taking careful notes and seems prepared to sit out the night with him waiting for an appearance from the spirit that a widowed farmer’s wife swears is living in her barn.

Carl’s sullen son, Brady (James Kautz), an apprentice ghost hunter who looks as if he’d rather be hunting more warm-blooded game, is the kind of country boy who’s been brought up to respect his elders and obey his father, so he minds his manners when his old man bullies him. But Carl is unnecessarily…

Originally posted on variety.com