When screenwriter Kate Trefry was asked if she would work on a theatre piece based on Netflix’s hit show Stranger Things, her first reaction was: “Is it a musical? That’s weird.” No, there was going to be no singing Mind Flayer. Instead, it was going to be a play.
The initial idea came from British director Stephen Daldry, who approached Stranger Things creators the Duffer Brothers about making an original stage show set in the Stranger Things universe. The Brothers jumped at the idea and asked Trefry to write it. Trefry had never written a play, but she was an expert on Stranger Things; she joined the show in season two as a writer and is now an executive producer.
“The Duffers really wanted to have somebody who really understood and was part of the whole process of creating the tone, the pace, the mythology [of Stranger Things]—to make sure that the play really felt like part of the same universe,” Trefry explains.
Stranger Things: The First Shadow opened in London in 2023, directed by Daldry. It will begin previews on Broadway March 28 (with an opening set for April 22) at the Marquis Theatre. It coincides with the fifth and final season of Stranger Things on Netflix, and it is the streaming platform's first foray into live theatre.
First Shadow follows the origin story of Henry Creel, also known as Vecna, the most formidable villain in the show. Vecna’s backstory is alluded to in season four of Stranger Things, but the play expands on that to explore how a young boy from Hawkins, Indiana, broke bad (and interdimensional barriers) and became the ruler of the Upside Down. Trefry conceptualized the story with the Duffer Brothers and Jack Thorne (the scribe behind Harry Potter and the Cursed Child).
With her Broadway debut, Trefry is the latest Stranger Things alum to make an appearance on the Main Stem—cast members Gaten Matarazzo was in the 2023 Sweeney Todd revival, Sean Astin was just in Elf, and Sadie Sink will star in John Proctor Is the Villain starting March 20. Plus, Maya Hawke will star in Eurydice Off-Broadway in May. For her part, the stage has never been a goal for Trefy, whose experience has been exclusively in film and television. That doesn't mean she's taking this moment for granted—the show starts rehearsals January 13, which is also Trefry's birthday. "I don't think you have to grow up with theatre to appreciate a Broadway debut being about the best birthday present you could ever ask for," she remarks.
Trefry does admit there were some growing pains in taking her writing skills from the screen to the stage. For one, the stage does not allow for jump cuts or numerous locations—and every word needs to count and have an impact. "That was one of the hardest things about doing this job, you really can't get away with anything!" exclaims Trefry.
Though you may think that Stranger Things, which is known for monsters and other sci-fi special effects, might not need to worry so much about story. After all, just let the spectacle do the work. You'd be wrong, says Trefry: “You never know when an effect is going to work or not work. We have the most incredible illusions team in, probably, the world. And yet, you do 300, 600 shows, stuff fails. So, the emotional turning point of a scene cannot be contingent on an effect working or not."
That forced Trefry to go back to storytelling basics, to tell a human story, with climaxes that were emotional, instead of special-effects driven. Then again, that's been arguably the backbone of Stranger Things the series: Underneath the political intrigue and supernatural forces, it's about a group of friends experiencing the pains of growing up—the series draws as much from John Hughes films as it does from E.T.
When the character of Vecna was first created, Trefry explains he was conceptualized as a Michael Myers-type figure—a personification of evil without cause or reason. That's fine for a television show where the main characters are the teenagers trying to prevent him from murdering people. Not so much when he's the subject of a stage play. "In writing the play, that's not a character that I can write. There's no arc there. I'm bored," admits Trefry, "unless we can just do like a serial killer movie on stage." Enter Henry Creel.
While the Stranger Things show takes place in the '80s, the prequel play takes place in 1959 and draws on another popular type of teen drama: the romance, with a young Henry Creel falling in love with a young woman named Patty. Sure, he may have some special powers, but Henry is also a teenage boy experiencing intense emotions for the first time and trying to figure out how he should express them (especially when there's a Mind Flayer on the loose).
To Trefry, the heart of The First Shadow (similar to Stranger Things) is “what it’s like to be an outsider, what it feels like to be alone, and how the people around you either doom you or rescue you.” It also asks the age-old question: Is evil innate or is it created?
Explains Trefry: "That's the question everyone's asking the whole time: Who are you and what are you and why? It's the ultimate coming-of-age identity crisis I think that we all go through—I certainly did, of being like, 'Oh, I want all these bad things. I feel all these bad things. Does that mean, I'm bad?'"
While there are Easter Eggs in The First Shadow for Stranger Things fans—including a subplot that involves the young versions of popular characters Joyce Maldonado, Jim Hopper, and Bob Newby—Trefry wants the play to be enjoyable for those who haven't seen the series, to stand on its own as a piece of drama. So don't worry if you're reading this article and don't know where the Upside Down is located.
"That is the mandate: Anyone who comes in off the street has to be able to see this play and have it be a coherent story," Trefry says. "When the human part of it, when the grounded, dramatic part of it really delivers, then all the sci-fi is allowed to take flight."
At the same time, despite the growing pains of having her very first play be played in such gigantic venues, Trefry has been relishing the chance to hear her words spoken by actors in front of a live audience—to hear them laugh and gasp together. It's made her even more eager to go back to the play and revise it for Broadway. "There's maybe, like, 10 pages that didn't get changed [after London]," she says. "It's not like film or TV, where you don't get another shot—you don't get to see how it is received and then get another shot. So it's really exhilarating to be like, we get one more chance to nail it."
Human drama aside, Trefry is well aware that an important way to nail Stranger Things the stage play is through atmosphere. So for sci-fi and horror nerds and Stranger Things devotees, she promises plenty of jump scares—and moments that cannot be replicated on screen. “There will be demogorgons in your face,” she says emphatically. “There’s gonna be all kinds of shit in your face. It’s got a haunted house vibe. You never know when somebody’s going to come out and touch you. It’s electric.”
And while The First Shadow is running on Broadway, the fifth season of Stranger Things will also be preparing to air (though a date hasn't been released). When asked if any of the events of The First Shadow will factor into season five (perhaps a Vecna redemption arc?), Trefry had to keep a tight lip. But she did hint: "There is connection. And it is really exciting." She then exclaims, laughing: "That's all I can tell you. I'm so sorry."
