It Must Be Told – Woman in Black, 17.1.13. New Victoria Theatre, Woking

Yesterday and luckily avoiding the snow to which we are experiencing today! I attended the New Victoria Theatre in Woking to see the Tour of the thriller play The Woman in Black adapted by Stephen Mallatratt, from the novel by Susan Hill.

This was my first time going into this theatre I have been there before but only on the outside as my sister was doing an exhibition for a photography and my family went to support, it was during ‘Starlight Express’ and I was so confused as there were loads of the performers coming out and roller-skating everywhere! But this time I got to go in, my first thought was it was going to be like The Mayflower, but when walking in to take our seats I was quite surprised at how petite it was, but not too small, though it did made me wonder how they put on big performance especially ‘Starlight Express’! However with a play like this it is understandable why they performed at the New Victoria and didn’t tour to The Mayflower, as it being smaller it allowed you to feel more involved with the performance which within this play is nessarsary. We Were seated in the stalls 4th row from the stage and dead centre and for the price that we paid £29.90 it was worth every penny as they were brilliant and a no restricted view at all!. As it was my first time in the theatre I do not know how the other sections dress circle and balcony’s view are, but the stalls I can see with each seat your not going to get a bad view!

Onto the performance, now I have to say that I did see the recent film adaptation with Daniel Radcliffe , so annoyingly I was tending to compare it to the film as it was the first time that I have heard the story which is something I should learn not to do! However the telling of this story is completely different but done with a play within a play where Arthur Kipps, played by Julian Forsyth, wants to tell his story to hope that it will release the burden that is upon him, so he hires an Actor, played by Antony Eden, to help him present his story to his family.  We witness the rehearsals of this story of when Arthur Kipps was a young solicitor and was asked to go to attend the funeral of Mrs Alice Drablow, the house’s sole inhabitant, unaware of the tragic secrets which lie hidden behind the shuttered windows. It is not until he glimpses a wasted young woman dressed all in black at the funeral, that a creeping sense of unease begins to take hold. “The expression on her face…desperate, yearning, malevolence…filled me with indescribable loathing and fear.” (Kipps speaks) This feeling is deepened by the reluctance of the locals to talk of the woman in black – and her terrible purpose.  The Actor takes on the role as Arthur and acts out the story that is being told where older Arthur Kipps plays the roles of others who he came across during this event.

The setting is on a empty stage with a doorway, curtain (which later reveals the ‘locked’ door) a clothes rack where the change of costume and props are placed, a door way and some chairs, and through the act of imagination they transform the stage into the setting of the marshes, and El Marsh House where the Woman in Black haunts. this was very effective and worked well for I did not question what I viewing, such as the scene while he was in the train carriage, although they were using just 2 chairs and a wicker basket I was able to still visualise that yes they were both on a train.  The framing for the stage then got a lot more depth to it, as you began to discover there was more behind the curtain, to which would be revelled through the telling of the story, and also the appearance of a stairwell from the back of the stage worked so effective. In the programme itself there was a quote from Peter Brook’s The Empty Space ” a book I have studied within my years at university

“Once, the theatre could begin as magic: Magic at the sacred festival, or magic as the footlights came up. Today, it is the other way round…we must open our empty hands and show there is really nothing up our sleeves. only then can we begin.”

This Quote just screams how the Actor presents that story of Arthur Kipps and how from with very little setting and props we can create a story so effective to the audience that it engages them through out.

The actors were brilliant! Antony Eden presented The Actor greatly, when he took on the role of Arthur you can see how challenging this would be, as how can you do someone when the person you are playing is right in front of you? and yet he did not feel phased and fed of the emotion of the words that Arhtur Kipps had written and performed them strong, it was hard to find a flaw in his performance! Julian Forsyth was an actor who took on the role of a man who did not know the first thing about acting, and yet he was the ‘actor’ who played the most variety of roles or each of the characters he met on his journey, in which we see through the play how much more comfortable he becomes, which runs smoothly in his performance I feel.

The thing with reviewing the Woman in Black is not trying to give out spoilers! cause I can see it can be easily done.  But I leave this post about the scare factor, now I’m getting the feeling that there may have been a few restrictions to the tour production than that of is home in London, as there is so much you can do to a theatre and some things you can’t achieve. but nonetheless I did jump and it did get my heart racing, but somehow I feel that the film at the moment achieved more in the scare factor so far.

But all in all this production was amazing and I’m glad I got the chance to see it, and maybe in the future I will get the pleasure in going to see it again 🙂 tour or London!