Woman in Black

The woman in black was one of the most amazing plays I have ever seen. A solicitor named Arthur Kipps tries to tell a story, a true story which he experienced when he was a young man. He has carried the horror with him for a majority of his life but now has realised that it is time to set it free. In hopes of parting with his story he wishes to tell it to his family and friends, in doing so he hires a young actor. At first the actor is not sure whether to help Arthur further but with a desperate plea Arthur persuades him otherwise. Arthur Kipps as a young man was sent to sort out an old woman's house and documents. He first goes to the funeral of ...  Read the complete review

The Woman in Black, written by Stephen Mallatrat is based on the novel by Susan Hill. It opened at the Fortune Theatre in London's west end in 1989 and has played to audiences of over two million since, being the second longest running play in the West End, after The Mousetrap. The gothic formula of the novel is realized on stage with great ingenuity through the use of meta-theatre as a way in for modern audiences skeptical of the realities of the stage. The play opens with a virtually bare stage, a young actor, and Arthur Kipps: a man with a tragic tale to tell. Wanting some training in telling his tale to his family, he becomes the unwilling participant in ...  Read the complete review

I have seen The Woman in Black four times. As an avid theatre goer, I invite you to a unique and engaging performance. As a Drama teacher, I invite you to experience a superb example of what Antonin Artaud called 'Theatre of Cruelty'. Susan Hill, the writer of the novel on which Stephen Mallatrat based the play, had a simple idea. She trawled through a mountain of gothic tales and ghost stories, looking for the basic formula that would grip a reader, scare and thrill them. In my opinion, the novel is good. What Mallatrat does with the stage play is inspired. Rather than adapting the novel directly, he creates a piece of meta-theatre that not ...  Read the complete review

'The chilling tale of the Woman In Black unfoldes before their eyes, captivating the audience and delving deep into thier emotions, toying with thier minds.' I feel it is omoung the most frightning and clever plays that i have ever seen. i found the cast of two adds so much to the uniqueness of the play, and i feel in no way spoills it. when i first heared that there was only two actors thoroughout the whole peice i was shocked. prier to the preformance i thought that only having two actors would make it incredibly boring, a task to sit through, i would never have thought that the amount of tension and suspence would be maintained. I was ...  Read the complete review

This is a notably successful ghost story that's been running in London's fashionable West End since 1989. Adapted by Stephen Mallatratt from a story by Susan Hill, it's a skilful pastiche of Victorian or Edwardian ghost stories, perhaps most obviously taking inspiration from MR James. It has the classic James plot - civilised, rationalist man goes to isolated rural area and runs afoul of malignant spectres. The plot goes like this: In an unspecified Northern coastal town, sometime in the Nineteenth Century, an old lady, Mrs Drablow, has just died, leaving her sinister house and bundles of paperwork. In London her lawyers send the young Kipps oop ...  Read the complete review