‘The Woman In Black’: Gripping, thrilling theatre
Image: Daniel MacPherson in THE WOMAN IN BLACK Credit: Justin Nicholas
It’s interesting to note that the two longest running plays in British theatre history are both psychological thrillers set in England in the early 1900s, with elements of the macabre and madness in their themes. Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap is the longest running play of all time, but Stephen Mallatratt’s The Woman In Black, which has just opened in Sydney, is quickly gaining on its heels. And if audience reception is anything to go by, it may well knock The Mousetrap off the top of the dais.
Based on the best-selling 1983 novel by Susan Hill, The Woman In Black is a slow-boil, two-hander. The story is told through a combination of spoken narration and dramatisation, and it alternates between past and present. Two male actors play multiple characters. In this current Australian production, the two performers are John Waters and Daniel MacPherson.
Walters plays Arthur Kipps, an older gentleman who opens the play reading deadpan from a manuscript. He is interrupted by a person known only as “the actor” (MacPherson) who calls out from somewhere down in the stalls.
It transpires that Kipps has written a play and has hired the actor to coach him in performing it. Kipps is as wooden and engaging as a bar stool and the rehearsal sessions that ensue are very funny.
The manuscript is actually a kind of memoir that recounts a traumatic event in Kipps’ past. It is his way of sharing the story with his family, something he feels strongly compelled to do.
During rehearsals, the actor decides that he will play the role of the young Arthur Kipps and that Kipps will take on various other characters. At this point, we flash back to Kipps as a young lawyer. He has been charged with managing a deceased estate in the small, remote town of Crythin Gifford.
The large mansion, Eel Marsh House, belonged to the elderly widow, Mrs Alice Drablow, a mysterious recluse who appears to have no living relatives or friends, at least, none willing to take on her affairs. The house is situated on a peninsula accessible only via a causeway surrounded by treacherous bogs and subject to tidal flooding and sudden, blinding fog.
As the young Kipps begins delving into Mrs Drablow’s history, a horrible, twisted saga reveals itself. What unfolds is a gothic tale of a child born out of wedlock, alienation, betrayal , death, grief, and vengeance. And the past, he soon learns, continues to haunt him.
The Woman In Black is touted as the scariest play ever performed on stage. It definitely has major jump frights and employs classic cinematic horror elements to great effect. It’s real strength, however, is in the ever-tightening tension built through a drip-fed narrative that tightens the vice with every revelation until at last, the full horror is known. And then there’s a little more.
In terms of production, it’s quite pared back. The stage floor is made up of pale wooden boards and is tilted slightly towards the audience. Heavy grey drapery hangs in thick folds across the stage, midway back, and in front of these are a handful of props. When the action is in the present, it is performed in front of these drapes.
When the action switches to Eel Marsh House, the drapes are parted to reveal elements of a house. A large black sheer screen divides the stage and is backlit intermittently to reveal another space which is sometimes a graveyard, sometimes an upper level room in the mansion.
There is no music, but there are sound effects that contribute greatly to helping the audience visualise scenes that are mostly verbally described.
With the frequent switching from past to present, the number of characters to keep track of (including those who are only ever mentioned), and the fact that both Waters and MacPherson play Kipps, albeit in different time periods, you may occasionally get lost. The essence of the story, however, is front and centre, and when one of those jump scares occurs you’ll quickly remember where you are.
Waters and MacPherson are brilliant together and brilliant individually. Waters is especially adept in the various character roles, while MacPherson balances cocky confidence as the actor with youthful vulnerability as the young Kipps.
Quality storytelling that will leave you audibly gasping, nervously laughing, then utterly breathless.
