The Woman in Black - Nottingham

Read the book a long time ago, (if I remember rightly I think I did an exam on it) then re-read it earlier this year after I'd watched the film version. This was more scary than the film. Being in the theatre you felt part of the story especially as you didn't know where the actors (and the Woman in Black) was going to turn up.  Stephen Mallatratt's stage version of Hill's book is extremely good and told in a novel way. I hadn't realised until I was chatting to someone at work about it, that it is a long running play - I thought it was quite recent!!!! 

I loved the way the whole play is performed by just 2 actors (if you don't include the Woman in Black) and just a few  props and sounds from the sound-man  Their performances are excellent you really do believe they are riding on a pony and trap and Spider the little dog is real. When Spider runs off you follow the actors eyes to see where it is running to!!  The thriller-horror is all down to suggestion, not the blood and gore as seen in most novels and films designed to scare the living daylights out of you. A locked door suddenly opening becomes sinister, a creaking, rocking chair threatening , a trashed room ominous , a music box spine-chilling and swirling mist creepy. Your mind really does go into overtime. It might not seem to appeal to the teen population but when I saw it half the audience were teens (probably due to it being on their syllabus) and despite the shows teens tend to watch on TV and the console games they play this seemed to scare them so much more. They were screaming and shrieking and muttering throughout and at the interval all I heard was talk about the show (and from where I was sat no sign of them texting on their mobiles)- excellent! It seemed to have got under their skins and I reckon many will have nightmares for a few nights to come. I actually walked to the car after the show and was carefully looking into dark corners half expecting the Woman in Black to appear.

The play is set in a theatre where an aging man (Julian Forsyth) comes to tell his tale to an actor (Anthony Eden). He wants to be able to tell his family and friends about what happened to him thirty years ago when he was starting out. At first it is comical as he cannot do anything but tell his tale in a monotone way but the actor manages to bring him out of himself. The actor plays the young Arthur Kipps whilst Arthur (himself) plays every other character he meets. 

Arthur, a very junior solicitor is sent to Eel Marsh House,  in the back of beyond on the salt marshes, when an old lady dies there alone, to go through all her paperwork. But secrets are bound up in the house and marshes and the longer he spends there, the more he discovers. He finally discovers that a woman who had a child out of wedlock and gave the child up to relatives is distraught when he is killed in an accident and seeks revenge by taking children of local people. 

The final twist where the woman in black is not a surprise extra provided by the old man but an actual ghost is brilliant.