Originally built as a Roman Catholic chapel in 1794, the Maddermarket Theatre was converted into its present state in 1921 by Walter Nugent Monck. Monck was a founder member of the Norwich Players and recognised that, with its barrel roof copying that of the Sistine Chapel, the acoustics offered by the building would be second to none. Shortly after its conversion, Monck was overheard to say that "every theatre worthy of its name should have its own ghost," and it wasn't long before the ghost of the Maddermarket made its first appearance.

Nugent Monck, founder of the Maddermarket Theatre, was first to see the ghost.

As the theatre had originally been a chapel, the ghost turned out to be a monk. According to legend, a priest had been interrupted in the past, and he is tied to earth by his devotion to completing mass for his long-since-dead flock. Nugent Monck was probably one of the first people to see it. Watching some actors rehearsing for a play one day, he saw a monk come out of one of the confessional boxes still standing by the side of the stage. The monk then crossed the stage and disappeared into another confessional box on the other side.

Assuming this was simply an actor preparing for a forthcoming production, Nugent Monck paid little attention to it until all the other actors had left the stage and the monk had not reappeared. Climbing onto the stage Nugent Monck crossed to the confessional box and opened its door. When he did so he found himself looking into an empty confessional box. The legend of the monk had begun.

A few years later a prompter by the name of Peter Taylor Smith was sitting by the side of the stage keeping one eye on the actors and the other on the script, ready to help should any actor stumble over their lines. A sudden compunction made him turn and look to his right, and when he did so, he saw the monk standing by the side of the stage watching the audience. After a few moments the monk disappeared but Smith had lost his concentration and also his place in the script. Soon after one of the actors forgot his lines and with Smith unable to prompt him, the play fell into something of a shambles.

When the play was over, Smith was called to the manager's office to explain what had happened. More surprising was that when he got there, he found a young couple who had been sitting in the front row of the stalls that evening asking the manager why there had been a monk standing by the side of the stage all night.

The Maddermarket Theatre.

Some years later, during a production of the play "Murder in the Cathedral," the play covering the death of Thomas a'Beckett, the actor playing the part of Beckett suddenly froze on stage whilst delivering his eulogy. An actress on stage with him at the time glanced in his direction to see a shadow forming behind him, she nudged the young girl next to her on stage and the two women watched as the shadow appeared to take the form of a monk and gave the actor a cuddle whereupon the actor restarted his eulogy. When the two women told the actor what they had seen, he was unaware of having even paused during the eulogy let alone having frozen for the five or six seconds the two women had watched him.

On another occasion a young engineer was climbing up his ladder to his lighting rig, when he became aware of somebody climbing the ladder in front of him. When he got to the top there was nobody else there.

Paul Stimpson, who has been technical manager at the theatre for the past seven years, told Ed: "I once came into the theatre, first thing in the morning, and I could hear footsteps going up the staircase behind the stage.

Is this the ghostly Monk of the Maddermarket Theatre?

"When I opened the door there was nobody there. The funny thing was that the burglar alarm was on, so if there had of been anyone there it would have set it off.

"A while ago the comedian and paranormal expert Michael Bentine came to the theatre. Almost as soon as he was on stage he told us that the auditorium was full of ghosts, but that we needn't worry because they were friendly ghosts. Actually sometimes when something is lost a box will suddenly fall off a shelf and the missing object will be found in it.

Many other actors, engineers and audience members have heard or witnessed the monk as he has made his way around the theatre, but maybe the most unexplained sighting came during the performance of the play Agnes of God. A group of 30 school children aged nine, 10 and 11 were brought to see the play. The following day at school they were invited to write an essay on the play. Out of 30 schoolchildren 14 of them wrote that the part of the play they liked the best was when the monk walked across the stage and made a crucifix turn round without touching it - there is no monk in the play Agnes of God.

So, next time you watch a play at the Maddermarket Theatre, keep one eye out for the friendly monk!

LOCATION

This ghostly tale has kindly been provided by Ghostly Dave - visit his Norwich Ghost Walk website here.