Every generation invents a bogeyman, but our version doesn't need the dark, it arrives at 2am through a feed that already knows what frightens you, and it gets better at frightening you every time you look.

The Bogeyman is a supernatural thriller that begins with the earliest horror films, when audiences first flinched at flickering ghosts and knew, underneath, that they were safe. It ends somewhere far less comfortable: a present in which real and fake footage sit side by side in the same scroll, where fear travels faster than facts, and where the people most exposed to it are the youngest and the least able to switch it off.

On stage that story is told through the languages we've built across Shock Horror and The Void - illusion, film and at the centre of the play a life-sized puppet: a figure that looks human, moves like us, and is visibly worked by other hands. For a young audience that has grown up inside algorithms designed to steer their attention, that image needs no explaining.

Made with young people from Kirklees and Birmingham from the very first day, The Bogeyman will tour to eight mid-scale venues across the UK in Autumn 2027, including The Lowry, Birmingham Rep, Watford Palace Theatre and Leeds City Varieties.

Last year's tour of The Void gave us invaluable insight into what works, what young people respond to, and where we need to go further. Here is what we learned:

-4,792 total audience members across 12 venues
-1,471 young people (aged 12-18) brought into theatres
-892 first-time theatregoers
-31 wraparound workshops delivered
-19 new schools & colleges visited
-509 new participants engaged
-2 Priority Place visits, bringing 114 (aged 12-18) new young audiences into their theatres
-28% of our creative team from under-represented backgrounds
-22% of participants from the top 20% most deprived areas in England
-78% of survey respondents said the show increased their interest in theatre
-84% of survey respondents said the workshop improved their creative skills
-92% of teachers said they would book again

In its first year, our latest ACE funded project The Void brought in an average of 307 young people per venue, compared to Shock Horror's average of 200 young people per venue across its full run. The Void is already showing a clear trajectory of growth in young audience engagement. With The Bogeyman we want to go further still - not just reaching more young people, but putting them at the heart of how it's made from the out-set.

Demi Hutchison is a 17-year-old theatre student from Kirklees (an ACE priority place and one of the UK's most educationally deprived areas) who joined our filming cast for The Void in 2025.

For Demi, it was a chance to step into a professional creative environment, take risks and discover new skills in acting for camera, green screen and digital performance.

"I felt I was in a safe space to make mistakes, learn new things and really explore my creativity. I now see myself as more of a versatile actor feeling confident in different mediums of acting and it’s a huge thanks to the Thunder Road team.”

This year Demi comes with us into the R&D room as a paid co-creator on The Bogeyman and a member of our Advisory Group, the panel that will assess the whole R&D at its close alongside The Rep's Programmer and Youth Board Director and Craig Leo. She is what this project is for: a young person from Kirklees moving from participant to decision-maker. Our first Youth Board, recruited within six months of the R&D, will make that a permanent part of how Thunder Road works.

Read Demi's full story here →

Puppetry has never before been at the heart of our work.

With The Bogeyman, our puppet puts the performer in plain sight. You see the hands, you see the breath & somehow you still forget they're there. It only lives if the people moving it & the people watching it agree to believe. That's the feeling we want to explore. In a play about being "puppeteered" by feeds & algorithms, the puppet isn't decoration - it's the argument.

Young audiences will watch something being controlled, in the same room, in real time. This time we're working at a different level: led by a War Horse Puppetry Director, with a prototype from South Africa, building towards a life-sized puppet shaped by the young people in the room.

Puppetry also travels. It needs no headset, no rig & no screen to work, so every young person in our workshops can pick one up & learn to bring it to life.

“Thunder Road are exciting, innovative, boundary-pushing and this journey into motion capture can only take them further.”‍ ‍- Kat Gibson, Producer, Watford Palace Theatre

"The students took valuable information and techniques away from the workshop that they have now successfully put into their devising drama GCSE section. This has massively improved their performance." - Kath, Drama Teacher, Madeley High School

Across 90 wraparound workshops we've learned what it takes to get young people from watching to making, often in a single session. We know how to build trust quickly, so even the quietest voices feel safe enough to contribute. We know how to handle dark and unsettling themes with care, giving young people the freedom to explore them without feeling exposed. And we know how to take raw ideas, a movement, a line, an image, and shape them into something that can be performed.

The R&D asks all of this of us, but over two weeks rather than two hours. Our workshops have been the testing ground. Now we get the time to go deeper.

“Our youth theatre had a terrific session and it gave them so much to think about and develop in their practice.”- James Williams, Watford Palace

See one of our other workshops in action →

The Void is the story about the loss of identity & humanity in a world controlled by AI. Urgently relevant to young people and unlike anything else on the mid-scale touring circuit.

"The Void is incredible, striking sci-fi isolation. It made me question the narrative being pushed, and if I should really believe what was being presented to me. Claustrophobic, unreliable and unnerving." - Danni, 18, Watford (young audience member & workshop participant)

"A bold plunge into sci-fi horror that electrifies the stage with cinematic flair and unsettling atmosphere" - Glos ★★★★★

“Intriguing, mystifying, mind-bending” - Young audience member

"It's rare to find a production that can combine the intensity of a horror film with the depth of live theatre" - Hull Is This ★★★★★

“It’s really edgy, and real cool, it gets your attention” - Young audience member

“Immensely successful in developing its own identity, a production that challenges the boundaries of theatre” - Jackstage ★★★★

Watch the trailer →

Shock Horror was a landmark moment for Thunder Road - a bold experiment, helping to forge long-lasting connections with young people & venues across the UK - a highly acclaimed, sustainable mid-scale touring mode, laying the foundations for everything The Void is building on today.

-41,451 total audience members across 46 venues
-9197 young people aged 12-18 brought into theatres
-13,409 first-time theatregoers
-59 wraparound workshops delivered
-31 schools & colleges visited directly
-1534 participants engaged
-92% of young audiences rated screen effects/projections as "Amazing" or "Good" (from a representative example of 500+)
-24% of our creative team from under-represented backgrounds

“The whole day was amazing! Really insightful, really engaging. I learnt so much about puppetry and horror in theatre” - Lily, 16, Dorchester (young audience member & workshop participant)

"Brilliantly combining live performance, illusion and film" - Theatre News ★★★★★

“The most amazing thing I’ve ever seen” - Young Audience member

"The terror and mystery it creates is inescapable" - Exeposé Magazine

Explore Shock Horror →