The Woman in Black
Theatre Royal Brighton
until Sat 22nd November
By: Susan Hill
Adapted for the stage by: Stephen Mallatratt
Genre: Horror
Duration: 2 hr incl. Interval
The Woman in Black promises to deliver an intriguing mystery, a story that will chill you to the bones and make your heart leap out your chest. That promise is quickly broken, and all we’re left with is a boringly straightforward play and a couple of predictable scares.
The main character of the story is Arthur Kipps, a man who believes his family to be cursed by the ghost of a woman he once saw as a young man. Now, years later, he hires a young actor to tell his story, in hope to finally rid of the terrible nightmares that plague him, and end the curse once and for all.
The play takes place in a foggy, grey village, surrounded by vast emptiness, and an old house that towers over a lake. The perfect place for a horror story. The Woman in Black fails to take advantage of its surroundings. It lacks atmosphere, it doesn’t feel grounded in place. The set design was disappointing. We spend most of the time in a drab room with a wicker basket in the middle. The play tries to emulate different environments through colour-changing light and shadows cast against the wall. A trick I’d expect from a middle school play, not a theatre production of this level. The most interesting parts of the design come out only towards the end but are hidden at all times behind a see-through curtain, never letting us in, never immersing the audience fully.
The Woman in Black lacks tension, build-up, and consequence, all the elements that make a good scare, and instead relies on cheap tricks, loud screams or screeches. Just because I was startled, doesn’t mean I was scared. Because of the lack of build-up or dramatic tension, the scares often fell flat, sometimes even drawing a laugh out of the audience, the last thing you want in a horror play. Arthur Kipps even states at the very beginning that the ghost isn’t dangerous. So why should we be scared? The writer failed to realise that a good scare is narratively driven, and its purpose is not only to make us jump.
The structure undermines the play greatly. The play-in-a-play set up takes away from the most interesting bits of the story, the old house, the ghost, the tragedy, and forces us to spend time in a different place, listening to Kipps complaining that he can’t act. Again, why should we care?
The best plays make you forget you’re sitting in a theatre. They transport you through space and time until you feel like part of the story. The Woman in Black felt like a drab monologue that lasts way too long, and never compels, never gives you goosebumps.
The Woman in Black is currently playing at Theatre Royal until 22nd November
Reviewer: Roberta Guarini
Photo Mark Douet