THE TACKY FORTUNE THEARTRE AND THE GREAT WOMAN IN BLACK (Woman in Black)

Member Name: jacklover

Product:	Woman in Black
Date:	22/07/01 (662 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great production

Disadvantages: Not so good location

Don't you just love all scary stories!? Whether there ghostly or monsterous, you usually love 'em' like I do, or you just quite plainly, simply hate 'em'! Each weekend, well not literally EVERY weekend, but some weekends, I sit down in front of the telly and if there isn't any decent comedies on, I'll simply watch a horror movie instead, ok, ok, so maybe sometimes I'll pull a pillow over my head and then other times I'll jump and maybe even scream but they are fun to watch aren't they!?

This week has been, 'THANK GOD' the last week of school for myself and many others too, this means a it has been a supposedly FUN week for me!! (SUPPOSEDLY!!) One of my main attractions of the week happened on Tuesday, on Tuesday I went to London on an English/Drama school trip to a theatre called the 'Fortune Theatre' to watch 'The Woman In Black'. Taking drama next year as an option to do at GCSE level, I was rather looking forward to the trip, especially as it was a horror genre.

The theatre itself didn't look that great, so things didn't get off to a good start, with all the surrounding theatres looking smart and pleasant, the 'Fortune theartre' looked a little out of place, with Martine McCutcheon starring in 'My Fair lady' around the cornor, this theatre suddenly lost all my interests. Then as I entered the theatre to go to the toilet, I got sent down 3 flights of stairs underground, which seemed really creepy and damp, then the toilets themselves weren't that great either!!! With 2 whole cubicles the size of a cardboard box I really was anticiapting the theatre and the production!!

The theatre was very different to other theatres I've visited, but then I was in london and coming from Colchester in Essex things were VERY different! The theatre was about roomsize width with 1000's of flights of seats literally over hanging the stage itself, I found mysel
f sitting on the row below the top one which didn't look good, I was very high and had to even lean to see most of the stage!!!

The production itslelf though, thankfully was of great quality, although the whole thing only consisted of 3 actors, the story was amazing and put across very well. I won't give away the whole plot but basically, 'The Woman In Black' is a play about the production title, the woman in black appears as a ghostly figure most of the time, she slowly unfolds a twisted and complicated, horrific mystery.

The first scene is the introduction to the 2 main characters, both males, though one quite young and the other pretty old. The audience sees the old man ask the young man for a favour. The old man wants a production of past events in his life, the young one agrees that they can work together to complete the production under certain circumstances and that of course he gets paid. Here the weird and twisted plot starts to unfold.

The old mans past is basically the whole plot, he once visited a haunted house when he was younger and the 'goings ons' inside the house is brought up and re-acted out with great use of special camera and light affects. The noise affects were also great, with all these uses of technical eqipment the production was enable to become so realistic and believable. I found myself jumping at certain times, then a couple of times there was a recorded voice of a curdling scream which chilled blood and made members of the audince scream too. There were many other scary and freaky points to the production, none of which I will give away.

Without giving any more of the plot away, I will try and carry on. The theatre production comes from the novel written by Susan Hill, although I have not read the novel, I'm sure it's worth a read. However, the novel was re-adapted by author, Stephen Mallatratt and has now been running for over ten years in the West End. (I believe n
early 15 years now!)

Although the production wasn't as good as any horror movie that I've ever watched, it was so realistic it was fantastic, it made me cringe inside and it definintely chilled my blood. That night, I could unbelievably think of nothing else apart from what happened in the production! Thinking of the woman in black is making things curl up inside! I think I've explained my horrific meeting with the 'Woman In Black' quite well, now it's time for beddie byes!! Sweet dreams everyone!

Thanks for reading ~M~
PLEASE NOTE, WHERE IT SAYS, 'PRICE' BELOW I PAYED £7.50 FOR MY TICKET AS A REDUCED SHOOL PARTY PRICE. THANKS.

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