On Friday the 19th of June I attended a performance of The Woman in Black with other Drama Students from my school at the Buxton opera house in Derbyshire. I was looking forward to seeing how the story was going to be presented to the audience, as the show was claimed to be "The most terrifying live experience in the world" (www.thewomaninblack.com ) ; and I wanted to see whether it fulfilled to this message and if so, how they did this. *WARNING CONTAINS MAJOR PLOT SPOILERS*
When I walked into the auditorium of the Opera house I knew that the show was going to be different to what I had expected. The set was sparse and the stage was set with a full coat rack and a large wicker box. The lights dimmed as the expectant audience took their seats, only leaving a few dim lights on around the edge of the stalls. This made the show seem scary before it even started, because the low lighting made the audience unable to see anything that could be coming towards them.
The show began with one of the two characters 'The Actor' walking down the centre aisle talking enthusiastically about a play that him and the other character, Arthur Kipps, was going to put on. This startled the audience, as the lighting and scenery suggested that something terrifying was going to happen at the beginning of the show, but instead we were startled by a 'normal' character. This shows how important setting the scene is in theatre, as it sets a certain mood with the audience before the show even starts.
In the show, the actor had been hired by Arthur Kipps to put on a play about this 'ghostly creature' that used to haunt him in the past, so he could warn others about it. The Actor decided to put a twist on this objective and tried to make the show help Arthur get over his fear of the 'Ghost' returning.
All throughout the show the actors go into Arthurs' story, but also come back into reality to show to the audience how Arthur is feeling about each event that happened in his life. This is an effective dramatic device, as it helps the audience understand more about how the event affected Arthur and it foreshadows his feelings towards the next event, and whether it is going to be terrifying or not. This also increased the tension in the audience, as his reactions to wanting or not wanting to continue made them wonder and speculate about what could happen next.
In the play within the show the Actor plays Young Arthur Kipps and Arthur Kipps plays every other character. The portrayed how the characters Older Arthur was playing changed by the posture and accent of the character. This made the audience aware that the character had changed, and it also gave them an insight into the social class and background of the new character. For example, near the beginning of the play Older Arthur transforms into a horse and cart driver. His posture becomes slouched and he has a common accent. This demonstrated to the audience that his new character was from a poor social class and that he works long hours, as he looked tired.
Another way that a change of character was shown is that Older Arthur kept putting on and taking off coats and hats. He used the coat rail on the front left of the stage to place and take off coats to wear. I thought that this was a clever way to show that the character has changed, as it was an extremely simple way to show that this happened, but it was effective and consistent throughout the performance.
In the first part of the play within the show, Young Arthur had been sent to a house out on the marsh to look through the recently deceased owners' belongings and sort out any of their left over bills and taxes. He goes on a horse and cart to the house on the marsh. The actors used the large wicker box to be the cart. They moved up and down, as if the cart was actually moving and the coachman was whipping imaginary horses. This was extremely effective, as it was so well acted out that the audience thought that there were real horses there. Also, it let the audience imagine what was there. I think that this was effective, as it made them open up their minds to think what could be there around them, therefore increasing the tension levels as they had let themselves speculate about how different imaginary objects in the play within the show could affect the storyline.
Later on in the play Young Arthur is walking on the marsh with the caretakers' dog. As the dog is imaginary, the audience could imagine it however they wanted and make a personal emotional connection with it, especially if they imagine it as their own dog. The fact that the dog was imaginary made the event that happened next even more upsetting for the audience. The marsh began to get foggy and the dog began to sink into the marsh. As you couldn't see what was happening, the actor was describing what was happening to the animal whilst showing the sadness in his facial expression and tone of voice. I liked the way that this section was portrayed to the audience, as the fog and the marsh was a metaphor for how the 'Ghost' haunts and silently kills you from the inside out without others being able to see how it happened.
When Young Arthur Kipps arrives at the house on the marsh, he starts hearing noises in other rooms, so he goes to the door on the right side of the stage to investigate further. The first time he goes to the door it is bolted shut, so he can't get into the other rooms. Later on in the play within the show, he starts hearing children's screams from other rooms, which he finds curious as he knows that he is the only person in the house. As a result of this he goes to the door to investigate further and finds that, unlike before, it is open. This makes the audience wonder and speculate about who or what opened the door and whether it is a trap for the young Arthur Kipps. Throughout this section of the play, the door becomes the cause of all of the tension within the show, as it keeps unlocking and locking itself. Every time this happened the audience became more scared of what opened it and what the door was going to reveal to us this time. I thought that this was a very good way of causing tension in the play, as now our imaginations had been opened up by the imaginary characters earlier on in the play within the show, the actors could now manipulate us as we were vulnerable.
In the play within the show, when Young Arthur hears children's screams he opens the door and walks through behind a curtain that is covering the back end of the stage. All of a sudden the lights rise in the second section of the stage to reveal a children's nursery that was covered in blood and the toys were scattered across the floor broken. The fact that the audience was unaware of the scene being there throughout the whole show intensified the reaction when they saw the room. This helped increase the tension of the audience, as they were shocked by what they had saw and didn't know what had caused this and if there was more things like this that they would see. What was most effective about this scene was that the screams intensified as Young Arthur opened the door, but then immediately stopped when he entered the room. There was a short break of darkness, which seemed like a long time before the nursery scene was revealed. This short gap helped increase the tension in the audience, as they didn't know what was happening behind the curtain.
Whilst Young Arthur is in the nursery a black spectre walks through the auditorium onto the stage and through the door on the other side of the stage. Unlike when the 'Actor' walked through the audience at the beginning of the show, the spectre startled and scared the audience as it couldn't be seen well in the dim light, and the attention of the audience was on the events on stage, so when they saw this new character this made them jump, as they weren't expecting it and that the scene was already very tense without it.
The screams begin again and as Young Arthur investigated further into the house the nursery scene faded the black and all you could see was the silhouette of some stairs with a figure at the top. The screams stop again as Young Arthur started to slowly creep up the stair with one lantern being the only light on stage. This was effective, as it let the audience see the fear on the actors' face and it also made us not be able to see what was there in the environment around him. This helped keep the tension in the audience, as we didn't know what the spectre could do to Young Arthur. When Arthur gets to the top of the stairs the spectre screams and touches his arm as the whole scene goes to black. This made the audience speculate what had happened to Young Arthur and how he escaped to still be alive in the show.
At the end of the show, the actor applauds Arthur for hiring an actor to be the spectre, now known as 'The Woman in Black', but Arthur says that he didn't hire an actor and that he saw nothing there. This shows to the audience that Arthur sharing his story with the Actor caused the Woman in Black to stop haunting him and haunt someone else instead. This made the audience worry for the Actor, as doing a good deed he now is cursed by the Woman until he can pass it on to someone else.
The only part of the show I didn't like was the beginning, as it took a while to get the play within the show started. Looking back, I now think that it was necessary to do this, so the audience understood the back-story of the play and why Young Arthur was in the house on the marsh in the first place.
In conclusion, I would definitely recommend people to go and see this show, as it manipulates the audience into thinking negatively during the show, and that it was entertaining in a cynical way throughout. The show taught me about how theatre can influence peoples' thoughts about certain subjects, such as the supernatural, and how important props, lighting, scenery and costume are when setting the mood of a show. I feel that this experience would help me in the future, as I am considering a career in production arts and this show has shown me how tension isn't just caused by the actors; it's also about the scenery, props and lighting.
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