York Theatre Royal – until Sat 16 November 2019
Reviewed by Michelle Richardson
3.5***
The Woman in Black is a long running play, based on Susan Hill’s successful gothic horror story, and adapted for the stage by Stephen Mallatratt.
It is a play within a play. Set within a theatre, Arthur Kipps (Robert Goodale) has enlisted the help of The Actor (Daniel Easton) to tell his story, a terrifying tale that he needs to be heard. Many years ago, as a young solicitor, Kipps spent time in the remote Eel March House in order to attend the funeral and sort out the affairs of a deceased client. What starts as a mumbled recitation, turns into a play, after The Actor’s insistence. At first the play is quite slow, with The Actor interrupting the aged Kipps as his mumbling continues. Soon though Kipps becomes more comfortable in his roles and the story is allowed to unfold. We see The Actor takes on the role of the younger Kipps, whilst Kipps plays various supporting parts.
Alone in the client’s mansion, sometimes staying the night, he sets about reading the many papers she has left behind. He comes across a door that can’t be opened, even though there is no apparent lock on the door, unexplained banging noises emitting from inside. He is plagued by the noise of a pony and trap and images of a gaunt, sallow woman in black. I do not want to give too much away but it does revolve around what is hidden behind that locked door. The true shocker though is the final seed that is planted in our mind.
As an audience we had to use our imagination, Spider the dog, who is mimed, and we see no actual pony and trap, just the suggestion. As the programme states “there are no special effects here, just harmless stage smoke and sudden, loud sound effects”. The show really does allow your mind run free and with the help of the lighting, swirling fog, noises and sudden appearances, it creates the right atmosphere to be scared. The tension at times was palatable, the silence deafening, just waiting.
With the woman in black of the story only making a very limited amount of appearances, the play only has two actors. Goodale and Easton impressed with keeping the audience involved, especially with the amount of dialogue.
I did find the first act a bit of a slog with too much dialogue. By the second act I was certainly more engrossed. I was expecting to be scared, but I’m really sorry to say that at no point in the show was I truly shocked and jumping out of my seat. Not one of the surprises, shrieks had me flinching, though at times through the story I did have chills, and not because of the weather. I was expecting more and I left feeling a bit underwhelmed. Am I too hard? Maybe? Quite a few of the audience must have disagreed with me, if the screams and gasps were anything to go by.
I would still encourage anyone to try and catch this show. Give it a try and hopefully let the suspense carry you away, and scare you out of your wits.