World premier plays transfer from Steppenwolf or the Goodman to New York on a fairly regular basis, and it is always fun for Chicago theater fans to know that we saw it first. However, seeing an exceptional show like Grey House make that transfer is even more exciting given that it premiered at Red Orchid, a quintessential storefront theater – its performance space on Wells is so intimate that a large percentage of the audience could touch the actors by extending their arms.

Grey House fits within the same supernatural horror genre as The Woman in Black. The latter is a scarier, but Grey House has a wider range of mysteries to uncover. The most intriguing characters are four teenage girls, who are among the inhabitants of a mountain cabin that would be very isolated even without the snowstorm raging outside. In the opening scene, which contains little dialogue, we see two of the girls watching TV, one sitting at a table, and another running up and down basement stairs with red strings that she attaches to a large canvas. There is also a woman (possibly their mother) asleep on the couch and a younger boy on the floor. Eventually, three of the girls start singing and stomping a rockabilly-style song while the fourth signs the lyrics. As the song hits its climax, a loud crash is heard outside. The residents of the house quickly scatter.

The action begins when Max (Tatiana Maslany) and Henry (Paul Sparks), the couple involved in the crash, enter the seemingly deserted house. Like the audience, these two characters do not initially grasp the rules that govern this environment, and it does not help that only one member of the family ever acknowledges that anything out of the ordinary is occurring. Laurie Metcalf, who provides the most star power among the cast, plays Raleigh. Her contentious relationship with Marlow (Sophia Anne Caruso), the oldest and most dominant of the girls, is a central question throughout the play. The other girls include Bernie (Millicent Simmonds), who is deaf and might be able to cause events with her mind; A1656 (Alyssa Emily Marvin), who is the people-pleaser among the group; and Squirrel (Colby Kipnes), who runs wild much like her namesake animal.

The questions pile up as Grey House progresses through a series of scenes. Henry is haunted at night by a ghost (Cyndi Coyne), who has a strange connection to Squirrel. The girls convince Max to play a game called Truth or Hell that carries the strange rule, “Tell a lie, and a mother will die.” The varieties of moonshine in the refrigerator are presented as vintages, and each is labeled something like “Allister 1945” – a man’s name followed by a year. Playwright Levi Holloway leaves many of the mysteries unexplained, a decision I appreciate because it left much for me to ponder after the show’s end. What is explained, or at least explored, is the function that Max and Henry serve within the house and the role that four spooky girls will continue to play possibly for the rest of time.

In addition to excellent performances from the entire cast, Grey House features remarkable lighting and sound design. Director Joe Mantello’s team orchestrates a number of jump scares along with some truly terrifying scenes connecting to a ceremony that is central to new inhabitants entering and leaving the house.

As I exited the theater, a woman asked me if I had enjoyed the show. She had not known that this was a horror play – notwithstanding the promotional poster, which features a strange girl standing at the edge of a pond with four ghost-like children staring up alongside her in the water’s reflection. Unfortunately, Grey House proved difficult to promote, and on the day I saw it, producers announced that it would be closing early on July 30. I’m disappointed that more audiences will not be able to see this Chicago transplant that is among the most original shows of the 2023-24 Broadway season.