(photo by Seanna Kennedy)
To my horror, what appeared?
Woman in Black receives strong presentation
by Jason Booker
The Woman in Black, an adaptation by Stephen Mallatratt of Susan Hill’s novel, remains one of the longest running plays in London to this day. With only three actors in the show and a minimum of set and costume, it must be a simple show to run. Especially if the audience doesn’t yet know the twist – which isn’t contained in the recent Daniel Radcliffe film, nor the original book.
The play opens with a frame for the story to come: an extended dialogue between Mr. Kipps, who has written down his ghost story and wishes to exorcise it from his psyche in front of an audience of friends and family, and the actor/director whom he has hired to advise him on how best to spin the yarn. Unfortunately, there are only so many times that an audience can tolerate being vaguely told that a play is horrifying before simply wanting to scream get on with it. But that is a quibble with Mallatratt’s overwritten script, which takes a while to get started, uses a few too many words – particularly ones that are too eloquent – and which may have benefited from compression into one 90 minute act.
