AUDIENCES at Cheltenham's Everyman Theatre last Saturday could have been forgiven for thinking it was All Hallow's Eve.

The theatre was packed for a scary last night of The Haunted Hotel, adapted from a book by the acclaimed Victorian author, Wilkie Collins.

A sense of foreboding and brooding evil was created by the excellent cast of the play within a play, which was set in a spooky empty theatre and an equally eerie hotel in France. Brian Blessed pulled out of the production at the 11th hour due to illness but Colin Baker did an admirable job of stepping into his shoes as Sir Francis Westwick.

Review by Pat Smith