IF you like chills, thrills and ghost tales, the new play at Cirencester’s Barn Theatre will really hit the spot. Room 13, by Duncan Abel and Rachel Wagstaff, is inspired by the famous ghost stories of MR James and is definitely proving a hit with audiences in the run-up to Hallowe’en. The production runs to 9th November.

Audience comments have been enthusiastic, in a jumped-out-of-my-seat, shivers-down-my-spine way. One said it produced “chills through my whole body” while another described it “as the scariest show I’ve ever seen.”

Experienced theatre-goers were as scared and excited as first-time thrill-seekers: “It was fab and I’ve never jumped like that during a show before!,” said one, while another suggested it was “the new Woman in Black.”

The theatre, which has established a reputation for original plays, is thrilled by the “incredible reaction we’ve had to Room 13. You can just see the adrenaline pumping through everyone!”

One reviewer has described it as “a tale of such creepy proportions that (SPOILER ALERT) I not only jumped sky high several times; I once even took part in a spectacular double-jump.”

This Built by Barn play looks to emulate the success of The Woman in Black or 2:22. The authors are best-known for their clever adaptation of The Girl on the Train and The Da Vinci Code. This new story, set in a lonely hotel on Denmark’s remote Jutland peninsula, centres on four strangers who are forced to spend the night in Room 13. Bearing the weight of their own grief, shame and darkness, they come to realise that the room has secrets of its own. Cue a lot of seriously scary stuff …

And if you’re wondering why we haven’t got an FTR review, well, we had our own horror show on the day we were meant to review. Our car broke down just as we arrived in Cirencester and is now in the garage awaiting parts. Not particularly spooky but certainly disruptive!

Photographs by Alex Tabrizi