Review: The House on Cold Hill, Theatre Royal, Norwich

This ghost story comes from the pen of best selling author Peter James who is better known for

crime writing, especially his detective Roy Grace series. Indeed, two of these have been made

into stage plays and achieved success on stage in Norwich.

This production is based on his own experience of buying a large, remote house in the south of

England - with added ‘guests’ thrown in! It stars two TV favourites, Joe McFadden who

everyone grew to love following his Strictly Come Dancing triumph, and Rita Simons, an

EastEnders stalwart for many years.

They play a cosy young couple, Ollie and Caro, who have just bought the country house of their

dreams only to discover it has a rather unfortunate past and, as you’d expect, strange things

start to happen.

It is very of the moment, with good use of technology, including a starring role for Amazon’s

Alexa, and there are several unexpected twists and turns to the plot. It’s not quite Susan Hill’s

classic A Woman in Black, but the suspense builds as the audience grasps the outcome before

the characters do. We can’t reveal much more but the play certainly succeeds in asking that age

old question: ‘do you believe in ghosts?’ You’ll need to make your own mind up on that one!

The play continues until Saturday. Visit www.theatreroyalnorwich.co.uk

Sarah Hardy