Milton Keynes Theatre
The Woman in Black Monday 8th April - Saturday 13th April 2013

Review 8th April 2013

To appreciate this gripping piece of theatre, you must know the background to the story...

Director Robin Herford was the artistic director of The Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough in the late 80's.  He needed a play to run over Christmas with only a small budget to use, so he approached his good friend and playwright Stephen Mallatratt to write a play.  Herford wanted a ghost story and Mallatratt suggested adapting Susan Hill's novel "The Women in Black".

Herford was drawn immediately to the "evocative power" of the book but it had one draw back.. the cast needed was immense and couldn't be afforded on such a low budget.  Mallatratt proceeded to write the Woman in Black in the style of the Shakespearean "play within  a play" - which made it a two man production....plus The Lady in Black...

This cut price production has run for 25 years and still going strong!

"The magic of the theatre, made possible only by the most precious and under used of  them commodities, the audiences imagination.  This piece relies extremely heavily on it, as all good theatre should.  Add to it the skill and proficiency of talented performers and technicians, along with a wonderfully gripping story" 

Gripping story...I would say amazingly gripping!! From the moment you walk into the slightly colder than usual auditorium, there is an air of chilling expectation.

The bare stage (bar a shabby costume basket, clothes rail and drapes...   Just watch what is behind the drapes...)  It's the actors that draw you in to the story...and keep you there on the edge of your seat.  If like me, you are slightly scared of anything ghostly, you will have your coat tucked up around your eyes and ears to shield from from the scary bits!! 

The story centers on a young solicitor, Arthur Kipps, who is summonsed to a small market town on the East Coast of England to attend the funeral of Mrs Alice Drablow, an elderly recluse who lived alone in the desolate Eel Marsh House.  The eerie house is situated on a causeway and at high tide is completely cut off from the mainland, with only the boggy marshland around.

At the funeral, Kipps sees a woman swathed in black from head to toe, with a pale drawn face.  Kipps sets about putting Mrs Drablow's affairs in order at Eel Marsh House, having to stay in the house on his own (as no one else will set foot inside). He endures an increasingly terrifying sequence of unexplained noises, events and  screams in the night....

Julian Forsyth (Arthur Kipps) and Anthony Eden (The Actor) both give an outstanding performance.

The "play" is so that Kipps can have his story told and he can at last rest in peace - and the actor who played his part has a better understanding of his suffering.  What becomes of the man portraying the part of Kipps...What happens to those that see "The Women in Black"??

This is a spine chilling tale and a brilliant piece of theatre.  Book your tickets now...

Lily B x