Stranger Things The First Shadow: the play about Henry Creel, in London and on Broadway
Spin-off · Theater · The First Shadow
Before it was a series, the story of Henry Creel became a play: “The First Shadow,” performed in London since 2023 and in New York since 2025, tells the year 1959, when a strange teenager arrives in town and the animals start to die. Here is what it tells, where to see it, and whether it will come your way.
The essentials
- Period: 1959, twenty-four years before Season 1
- Characters: Teenage Henry Creel, Joyce, Hopper, Bob in high school
- Theaters: Phoenix Theatre in London, Marquis Theatre in New York
- In France: no date announced to date
Contents
The story of The First Shadow
Fall 1959. The Creel family moves into the small town in Indiana, and the son, Henry, enters high school, where he crosses paths with Joyce Maldonado, who is putting on the year-end play, James Hopper Jr., the police chief's son, and Bob Newby, who tinkers with radios. Animals die, an evil spreads, and Henry, haunted by what he touched as a child in Nevada, discovers what he is. The play ends where season 4 begins: at the lab, with Brenner.
It is a prologue: everything season 4 told in flashback is played live there, with the town of 1959 and its adults, including the parents of Joyce, of Hopper, and of Bob.
The Vecna T-shirt, the 1959 hero.
In the shopRockin' Around the Upside Down tank top36,90 €See the product
Who made it
The text is by Kate Trefry, a writer on the show, from a story written with the Duffers and Jack Thorne, the author of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.” The staging is by Stephen Daldry, of “Billy Elliot.” The effects, illusions, creatures, levitations, projections, are the heart of the show, designed by the teams of the biggest West End productions, and earned the play its main awards.
| Town | Room | Since | Quirk |
|---|---|---|---|
| London | Phoenix Theatre | December 2023, until December 27, 2026 | World premiere; awards for effects and direction |
| New York | Marquis Theatre, Broadway | April 2025, until January 3, 2027 | New cast; awarded for its technical aspects |
| Paris | No date | Nothing announced to date |
And in Paris?
At the time of writing, no French version or tour has been announced: the play is performed in London and New York, in English, and both productions have announced their end, December 27, 2026 in London and January 3, 2027 on Broadway. French fans make the trip to London, two hours by train, where tickets are cheaper than on Broadway. The production has mentioned other cities after the end of the show, without naming any.
Do you need to know the show?No to understand the story, yes to savor every detail: seeing Joyce, Hopper and Bob at sixteen, and understanding what Henry will become, is the whole pleasure. Best watched after Season 4.
The tickets
In London, seats go from about thirty to more than a hundred pounds depending on the row; in New York, from sixty to several hundred dollars. The play lasts about two hours forty-five, intermission included, and is not recommended under twelve for its scare scenes. Tickets are booked on the theaters' sites, several months in advance for weekends.
What the play changes in the show
It gives Henry a youth, Joyce and Hopper a shared history well before 1983, and Bob a place he did not have. And it lights season 5: the Nevada stone, the entity, what Henry chose to carry, all of it is already there. It is the only spin-off the Duffers consider as part of the story.
The Vecna figure, Henry version.
In the shopLego Henry Creel mini figure14,90 €See the product
What the play reveals, and what the show answered
The play is set in 1959, the year the Creel family moves to Hawkins, and tells teenage Henry, his powers, his meeting with Brenner, and what pushed him over. It also gives the youth of Joyce, Hopper, and Bob Newby, high-schoolers in the same town, with a high-school play at the center of the plot. It suggests that a force from the Upside Down pushed Henry to accept his dark side, which the show was not saying yet.
The last chapter of the show answered that lead. Matt Duffer had promised the finale would say “who the real evil is”; the answer is the briefcase opened by Henry as a child, in a mine, even before 1959. The play and the show therefore read in one direction: the play poses the question, the last chapter answers it, and seeing the play after the show changes the reading of its last scenes.
The play in a few landmarks
| Marker | Detail |
|---|---|
| Premiere | London, Phoenix Theatre, late 2023 |
| Broadway | Marquis Theatre, New York, since April 2024 |
| Writing | Kate Trefry, a writer on the show, on a story by the Duffers and Jack Thorne |
| Staging | Stephen Daldry |
| Runtime | Almost three hours with an intermission |
| Period | 1959, twenty-four years before Season 1 |
| Characters | Henry Creel, Joyce, Hopper, Bob Newby, Victor and Virginia Creel, Brenner |
Kate Trefry, who wrote the play, also signed the sixth chapter of the last season, the one with Max and Holly's escape and the mine: the same hand wrote the question and part of the answer.
Why theater, and not a season
The choice of theater has to do with the period and the effects. A 1959 season would have required de-aging or recasting Joyce, Hopper, and Bob; on stage, different actors naturally play sixteen-year-old versions. And the play's effects, Henry's visions, the creatures, the radio that talks, are stage illusions, which makes the horror closer, a few meters from the audience, without CGI.
For fans, it is the only extension of the universe you cannot watch at home. You have to be in London or New York, and that is what makes it, despite the filmed excerpts that circulate, an experience apart: Hawkins in 1959, on a stage, with people who are afraid at the same time as you.
The Creel house poster.
In the shopBrown LED-eye Vecna mask34,90 €See the product
Takeaway1959: teenage Henry Creel, Joyce, Hopper and Bob in high school. London through December 27, 2026, Broadway through January 3, 2027. Nothing announced in Paris. The only spin-off the Duffers count in the story.
Frequently asked questions
What is The First Shadow about?
From the year 1959: the arrival of teenage Henry Creel in town, alongside Joyce, Hopper, and Bob in high school, up to Brenner's lab. It is the prologue of the show.
Where to see the play?
In London, at the Phoenix Theatre, until December 27, 2026, and in New York, at the Marquis Theatre, until January 3, 2027.
Is the play coming to Paris?
No French date has been announced to date. Fans make the trip to London.
Do you need to have seen the show?
Not to understand, but yes to appreciate everything: best watched after season 4.
Who wrote The First Shadow?
Kate Trefry, a writer on the show, on a story by the Duffer Brothers and Jack Thorne, in a staging by Stephen Daldry.
Should you see the play before or after the show?
After: it reveals who Henry Creel is, which the show only says in the seventh episode of season 4, and the last chapter answers the lead it opens.
Has Kate Trefry written an episode of the show?
Yes: the sixth chapter of the last season, "Escape From Camazotz," the one of Max and Holly's escape and of the memory of the mine, after having contributed to the story of the season 1 finale.
Is Bob Newby in the play?
Yes, as a teenager, with Joyce and Hopper, all three high-schoolers in Hawkins in 1959.