Back in 1987, director Robin Herford had a large amount of creative freedom but very little of his annual budget left with which to mount his final play of the year. He commissioned his friend and playwright Stephen Mallatratt, who, with these financial constraints in mind, decided to adapt Susan Hill’s dozen-character, gothic, ghost novel into a two-actor, two act play with minimal props or special effects.
The resulting play, The Woman In Black, eventually arrived in London’s West End in 1989, where it ran for 33 years (second only to The Mousetrap as the longest running play ever) and is now touring and is currently at Oxford’s Playhouse until Saturday (Feb 14).
It’s a play within a play: a Mr Kipps (John Mackay) has sought the help of an actor (Daniel Burke) in order that he may dramatize a story that happened to him 30 years previously.
The two of them start rehearsing the story: in his younger days Mr. Kipps was a solicitor who has to sort through the papers of a recently deceased elderly client, Mrs. Drablow.
To do this, he travels to her now empty remote house near the village of Crythin Gifford, which is hard to access and leave due to marshy land and high tides.
Mr. Kipps is friendly and well mannered so why are the village folk so reticent to talk to him on matters concerning the life of the late Mrs. Drablow? And what’s that noise that keeps him awake at night as he sleeps in her house? And what’s behind that locked door? And who is the gaunt, veiled figure he glimpses in the churchyard?
The play is such a resounding, perennial success perversely possibly because of what it lacks: virtually nothing you could call a special effect, only two actors covering a handful of parts, precious few props and one or two sound effects. And that’s it.
As a result, we, the audience, are called upon to use our imagination, which we seem to rather enjoy doing. It’s up to us to imagine the spooky house, Spider the dog, the marshy lands, the causeway, the graveyard.
And we are helped along the way by not only the two brilliant actors but also the lighting and sound team – nothing creeps us out more than shadows and darkness.
The vast majority of the packed Oxford Playhouse will tell you, as will I: be prepared to jump, be prepared to scream. A thriller indeed.
EDWARD BLISS
The Woman In Black runs at Oxford Playhouse until Sat Feb 14. Tickets at: https://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/events/the-woman-in-black
