Richmond Theatre – until 13 April 2019
Reviewed by Prachya van de Gevel
3***
Full disclaimer, I am a scaredy-cat and didn’t know what I was getting into when agreeing to review this play, but you will be pleased to know I survived Peter James’s adaptation of House on Cold Hill.
The synopsis is that a family moves into their forever home Ollie (Joe Mcfadden), his wife Caro (Rita Simons) and daughter Jade (Persephone Swales-Dawson) soon discover their forever home may not be the dream life they expected.
Their performance as with the rest of the cast were ok, perhaps a little over the top but it’s a horror story so maybe you need to be a little more theatrical.
The bad news here is every cast member gets outshone by Alexa… yes the now familiar Amazon personal digital assistant. I won’t give too many spoilers away, but if you hadn’t guessed this house is haunted and it seems the supernatural can now possess all manner of digital devices.
Helping to bring this ancient house into the 21st century was tech boffin would be spirit hunter Chris, played by Charlie Clements. He is absurdly manic in his mannerisms and his portrayal is a shy awkward “geek”, he is joined by Annie played by veteran of the stage Tricia Deighton. Annie is our resident spirit guide, tarot card reading spiritualist and her performance as well a little over the top but sufficed for the part she was playing.
I do think that Jade did well playing the teenager not so much the sullen teenager but a more modern, entitled teenager very reminiscent of the youth today and that was well portrayed. The cast is rounded out with Fortinbras (Padraig Lynch), Phil (Leon Stewart) and O’ Hare (Simon Balcon). None of the cast overly impressed me with their acting and whilst there was some humour within the performance it is bad that we are almost anticipating Alexa’s next actions and lines over the actors.
Having seen the Woman in Black as a stage play, this tale could have taken inspiration from their atmosphere and style of story telling. Whilst there was the expected jump scares and moments, it lacked that same eerie ambience you get, perhaps lower the temperature, darken the sets a little more, and just make things just a little more subtle. In some ways it was clever to bring aspects of the modern life into the play, but I think there was much more potential to make it darker and more chilling. Even at some climatic scenes, due to the same staging being used consistently there was a few times I asked my friend if they’d seen what happened as I hadn’t been able to discern what actions had taken place.
The special effects were well done, but having seen what can be done through other shows and plays using holographic techniques and projection overlays you do feel a little shortchanged. So yes I jumped at the appropriate times, and I laughed at Alexa’s lines, it was an ok play, but I think I just wanted more scares, more jumps, and a more chilling atmosphere.