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.