‘This is my first thriller so it’s all new for me. In fact, it’s my first stage play, so it’s scary for different reasons’
T HE House On Cold Hill is Peter James’ spinechilling tale of Ollie Harcourt and his wife Caro, who alongside their daughter make the move into a dilapidated Georgian mansion – only they soon realise that they’re not alone in their new home.
It stars Holby City star and 2017 Strictly Come Dancing winner Joe McFadden as Ollie and ex-EastEnders star Rita Simons as Caro, who open up about what fans can expect from the show which will be playing in Nottingham next year. What drew you to The House on Cold Hill? Joe: It’s really well written with really interesting characters. There’s some real tension in there and no-one in the play is what they first seem to be, which makes it so intriguing. It keeps you guessing right up until the last minute. Rita: I’m a massive fan of mysteries and thrillers. When I was a kid and probably way too young I loved watching really scary films and I’m into anything mysterious or scary, which this certainly is in places. I couldn’t put the script down when I first read it – I was gripped!
How would you sum up your respective characters?
Joe: On the face of it Ollie seems to have everything going for him. He’s just sold his advertising company, he has this great family and it seems like he has this brilliant life, then that slowly gets unravelled throughout the course of the evening. He’s very happy and optimistic that he’s got this house. He’s got the house of his dreams. In his childhood he was asked to draw the house he’d most like to live in and it’s exactly the house he ends up buying. But in the play everything starts to fall apart and you see his life collapsing
around him. That makes for an interesting progression as a character. Rita: Caro is a very family-oriented wife and mother but, as a solicitor, someone who is also very driven. I think she wears the trousers in the marriage but [laughs] I think all women wear the trousers and are quietly in control. She’s a smart cookie but she loves her family.
Are there ways in which you can relate to them?
Joe: I’m quite like Ollie in how he doesn’t believe in the supernatural or the occult, although I’m probably more open to it than he is. He very much has decided that all that stuff doesn’t exist. Rita: I am a wife and a mother and I do love my kids but [laughs] I don’t have a Barbour jacket, although interestingly I do come from a family of solicitors – my mum, my brother, my grandfather. But I’m the odd bod of the family who wanted to become an actress.
What particular challenges does the play present to you as actors?
Joe: I suppose the big challenge is creating tension in the theatre – getting the audience to care and scaring them, getting them wound up in the drama so they care about who we are and what happens to us. Rita: I’m used to playing extremes. With the last role I did on stage, Legally Blonde, my character was a way-extreme New York hairdresser and my TV roles have always been really gritty and I’m often in hysterics or someone’s died. So what’s quite difficult for me is that in the beginning when we’re setting up the tension it’s quite eventempered and that’s a hard place to place yourself as an actress, not having hysterics of any sort. It’s always easier to play one extreme or the other.
Why do you think audiences are drawn to theatrical spinetinglers?
Joe: It’s the immediacy, isn’t it? You can see a story unrolling in front of you and you can’t press “Pause” or get distracted by stuff. You’re right there, a captive audience, so when something is scary in the theatre it’s proper scary. I did a ghost story a few years ago, an Alan Ayckbourn play called Haunting Julia, and sensing that tension in an audience makes you feel really powerful as an actor – knowing that you’re scaring the bejesus out of people. Rita: I think audiences love to be on the edge of their seat and sometimes jumping out of it in a theatre full of other people feeling that same tension. This is my first thriller so it’s all new for me. In fact, it’s my first stage play as opposed to a musical so [laughs] it’s scary for different reasons.
Having had such varied careers, what are the roles people most recognise you for?
Rita: People shout “Roxy” at me about 40 times a day, but then I was on EastEnders for ten years. I’m just used to it now. Joe: Mine is Holby City mainly and also Heartbeat because they’re both on in the afternoons at the moment.
Is there anything you enjoy about stage work in particular?
Joe: It’s that thing of it being about you, not the editing, and the buzz you get from a live audience. You see the reaction instantly rather than having to wait for a year sometimes before you get that feedback. Rita: I love the live feedback and how you can instantly see the reaction. In TV you never see the reaction, you just hear about it. I’m the queen of nerves. I’m terrible. I build a trench every night walking up and down in my dressing room and it takes me about 20 or 30 performances to calm down, but then I love the adrenaline that goes with all that. You can’t say “Cut” and you’re so exposed but once I’ve calmed down I cannot wait to get on stage. I love touring and I love acting full stop.
What are you most looking forward to about taking the show on tour?
Joe: What I really like is how each audience is really different and the further north you go they seem to get warmer, especially when you go to Scotland. They’re quite vocal up there. I also like how the play can change in each venue depending on how much an audience gives to us. Rita: Audiences give you such a different reaction depending on where you are and that means you in turn give them something different every night. I also love how during the day you get to explore different places, places which you’d probably never go to if you weren’t touring. I just love seeing different parts of the country.
■ The House On Cold Hill will play at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, from January 28 to February 29 2019. Tickets are priced from £15 to £35.50 from trch.co.uk.