Threatre Review of Woman in Black

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Threatre Review of Woman in Black

The play I will be reviewing is called the Woman in Black, adapted by

Stephen Mallatratt from the novel by Susan Hill. I viewed it on

September the 17th at the Fortune Theatre in London.

The Woman in Black is a Gothic ghost/horror story set around the

Victorian period in which Eel Marsh House surveys the windswept

reaches of the salt marshes beyond Nine Lives Causeway. Arthur Kipps

(Brian Miller), a junior solicitor, is summoned to attend the funeral

of Mrs Alice Drablow, the house's sole inhabitant, unaware of the

tragic secrets that lie hidden behind the shuttered windows. It is not

until he glimpses a wasted young woman, dressed all in black, at the

funeral, that a creeping sense of unease begins to take hold, a

feeling deepened by the reluctance of the locals to talk of the woman

in black - and her terrible purpose. Years later, as an old man, he

recounts his experiences to an actor (William Rycroft) in a desperate

attempt to exorcise the ghosts of the past. The play unfolds around

the conversations of these two characters as they act out the

solicitor's experiences on Eel Marsh all those years ago. Stephen

Mallatratt's adaptation for the stage remains entirely true to the

book itself and uses much of Susan Hill's own descriptive writing and

dialogue, while transforming the novel into a totally gripping piece

of theatre. The play was preformed in a proscenium arch style staging,

and they cleverly use a small amount of props to display several

different locations, a transparent cloth hung down from the ceiling

separating the back half of the stage, this was used to show the

eeriness of the gr...

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... a hail of screams. An example of this was when the

torch fell from the man back pocket by mistake, and the whole theatre

erupted with screams, this shows the amount of tension that was

created, by him being in a dark place making no noise. This was what

the play excelled at.

I believe that the play was successful at entertaining the audience

overall, but could substantially improve the first half in order to

keep the audiences attention. The play was the best use of sound

effects I have seen yet, which impressed me greatly since they were

all very simple, yet extremely effective. Despite its overall success

I don't think I would recommend it to a friend or family member to go

to see this, I have viewed many other plays, which have been a lot

more enjoyable and kept my attention focused for the whole

performance.

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