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The House on Cold Hill by Peter James
18th February 2019 - 23rd February 2019
Following the incredible sell-out stage success of Not Dead Enough, The Perfect Murder and Dead Simple, the No. 1 best-selling author Peter James is back with the world premiere of this spine-chilling thriller.
BAFTA nominated actor and winner of BBC1’s Strictly Come Dancing 2017, Joe McFadden (Heartbeat, Holby City,) and award winning actress Rita Simons who played the iconic Roxy Mitchell in EastEnders, are joined by award winning actors, Charlie Clements (Bradley in EastEnders) and Persephone Swales-Dawson (Nico Blake in Hollyoaks) in Peter’s ghostly story of the Harcourt family, who move into the house of the dreams that has been empty for the last forty years. However, their dream home quickly turns into the stuff of nightmares as they begin to wonder whether they may not be the only residents at Cold Hill…
The House on Cold Hill is a modern-day supernatural thriller that will send shivers down your spine and make you think twice about returning home to a dark, empty house after the show!
“An award-winning cast …will leave you breathless with suspense.” Whatsgoodtodo
“A Genuine Spooky Thriller with a distinctly modern twist.” The Reviews Hub
“A classic ghost story. Superbly told.” East Midlands Theatre
“Spine-chilling… an excellent evening’s entertainment.” Eastwood Advertiser
“Remarkable.” Nottingham Post
Production Photographs by Helen Maybanks
Ticket price includes a £1 contribution to our heritage fund.
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Event Reviews
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May
I needed a laugh and this delivered! Thank you so much, despite the likely damage to my hearing, this play really cheered me up.
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Bronwen
What a load of ****! I could just about see how the script could be delivered well, but the cast – awful. My ears may never recover! Wooden acting, no variation in pitch, pace or emotion. A village hall would be ashamed.
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Gill
I totally agree with the above review. The dialogue between the actors was stilted. The players over acted and failed to build up any sense of tension. A very disappointing evening.
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Choice Radio
Peter James has a well-earned reputation for producing high quality thrillers, many of which have a clue in their titles: Not Dead Enough, The Perfect Murder, Dead Simple…
The latest of his theatre adaptations is The House on Cold Hill, where again implicit in the title is the promise of rum goings-on in a not too welcoming setting. Here, the setting is a somewhat crumbling pile near Brighton recently purchased by web designer Ollie (Joe McFadden) for his wife Caro (Rita Simons) and daughter Jade (Persephone Swales-Dawson) and which sees its first fatality within the first couple of minutes.
As the story unfolds, the audience is never quite sure who to trust - is Chris (Charlie Clements), taken on to install wi-fi in the house, a trusty worker or does he have other motives to feed his interest in the supernatural and does Annie (Tricia Deighton) really hear voices from beyond the grave? Does the fact that the house used to be an old monastery hold the key to the mysterious apparitions and activities?
All is revealed by the end, of course but how many more deaths will there be on this, the eve of Ollie’s 40th birthday, a significant one in more ways than one? Whilst it contains the usual thriller elements of doors mysteriously slamming, lights going on and off, items hurtling across the stage - the scenes are cleverly mixed with humour to burst the building tension.
And in this play, the scenario is brought bang up to date with the introduction of one uncredited yet crucial cast member...
Welcome, then, Alexa to your stage debut!
The story was actually inspired by Peter James’ own experience after buying an isolated historic Georgian mansion and the apparent existence of a certain grey lady... And oddly enough, Malvern theatre itself is reputed to have the spectre of a charming old lady in black who claims that she is waiting for her carriage. No doubt she also is relishing this well-written and well-acted thriller, which bodes well for the forthcoming The Secret of Cold Hill and the 15th book in the Roy Grace series, Dead at First Sight. Thriller lovers are in for a great year.
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Lucy
Just returned home from watching a fabulous performance of the wonderful Peter James’ The House On Cold Hill. The actors were fantastic, the tension and dynamics amongst the group was fast-paced and electric, the delivery of desperation amongst a terror-stricken family was clearly palpable. Well done all cast and crew on bringing one of my favourite authors to life on stage!
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Ian
Very disappointing, not sure if this was meant to be a comedy or serious offering, it failed to be either. Poorly acted with annoying characters the whole thing lacked impact or any great stage craft which is surprising considering the experience of the cast.
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Jools
Very disappointing. Weak story, even weaker acting. As for the awful shouting especially from the daughter, words fail me. A complete waste of money. I couldn't possibly recommend anyone to see this play.
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Claire
Totally disagree with other reviews. Excellent story superbly acted and suspense from start to finish.
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Judith
A pity the leads over acted so much, and the voice of Persephone really grated, so shrill.... I was disappointed, particularly with the ending, as I love a good ghost story. I’ve seen many Peter James adaptations and they never disappoint so this was a great pity.
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Lesley
They did not come across as a family at all they were just saying their lines at each other they didn't seem to gel at all and the very shouty daughter really grated, so badly over acted and very disappointing. We've seen other Peter James plays and enjoyed them but we felt the cast weren't right for this production.
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Barbara
I was looking forward to this play following the press reviews on this site and from previous Peter James adaptation. Sadly from the first scene the disappointment began to set in. I found the physical acting rather unconvincing and delivery often resembled pantomime. The special effects were predictable and rather poorly implemented not at all scary. Rather poor value.
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Claire
Totally disagree with other reviews. Excellent story superbly acted and suspense from start to finish.
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Philip
Philip
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Emma
The Malvern production was poor. Acting as wooden as the floorboards, and as said by others ,the shouting voice of the "daughter" was dreadful. No suspense created at any time, and the audience were laughing in places as it was so amateurish.Very disappointing.
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Martyn
Truly awful, do not waste your money on this garbish, when people start laughing at name places something is very wrong, I can only comment on the first half as I just couldn't stand it any longer, reminded me of my only school play in 1969, the government inspector, but us 14 year olds were better actors and had a better director (miss vines drama teacher) .
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Anna
Excellent play. Atmospheric and spell binding. I will never have an Alexa in my home!
