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The Woman in Black at the Grand Opera House, York
Saturday, 3 February 2024 11:56I went to see The Woman in Black with Joel last night at the Grand Opera House in York, and since I've written about it at some length on Facebook, I may as well transfer that over here too.
My first encounter with this story was reading the script of the play what must be almost 25 years ago now, and I've wanted to see an actual production of it ever since. All the more so after watching the classic 1989 ITV adaptation of it last week by way of preparation. In fact, that worked even better than expected, as the stage play begins after the action of the story has ended, with the protagonist (Arthur Kipps) asking a young actor to help him tell the story. So it was quite easy to imagine the Kipps of the ITV version going on to be the Kipps of this stage production, some decades later.
We had seats a looooonng way up in the gods, because I only found out it was even on late in the day when there weren't many tickets left. At York's Grand Opera House, that meant very steeply-raked rows with terrible leg-room, so we probably didn't see it to its absolute best effect. Nevertheless, it delivered some really effective chills for a theatre production. Joel's hand got a good squeezing at certain points! Very good use made of a beating-heart sound effect, some sudden plunges into darkness, projected silhouettes etc. Also nice creative work with a small selection of basic props which 'became' a myriad of different things during the course of the play - especially a large wicker trunk which served as back-stage storage, a desk, a train carriage seat, a horse-drawn trap, a bed, and Alice Drablow's document repository.
One of the things I really liked when I read the script was the double-layered approach the story. It begins with Kipps and the actor he has hired discussed how to tell his story, and beginning some read-throughs, after which they 'go into' the story itself, 'becoming' the various characters within it but also periodically coming back 'out' of the narrative to comment further on matters of stage production. During this process, a Woman in Black appears at the appropriate moments in the story, but she isn't played by either of them, and the implication of course is that she isn't merely 'in' the story but is actually manifesting in the empty theatre they're using, with ghastly implications for them - and perhaps even for us, the real-world audience.
It's a very clever device, not merely 'meta' for the sake of it, but adding a layer of thrill and ambiguity around where the line lies between reality and imagination. It worked well in this production - though I think I'd have had the Woman standing silently somewhere within the actual auditorium at a couple of points for that extra blurring of realities. However, some business at the beginning around the protagonist not being a natural performer was slightly over-egged, and played for laughs in a way that then set the audience up to respond to some of the later chills with self-conscious laughter that I'm not sure added to the experience.
One thing I hadn't remembered was that once Kipps and his hired actor get into the story, it begins on Christmas Eve with Kipps' family telling ghost stories around the fire - way to acknowledge the grand tradition within which your ghost story belongs! I also had fun turning up in all-black Victoriana, just for the lulz. We intended to take a picture next to one of the posters for the play, but there wasn't really room amongst the crowds coming out at the end. However, one woman spontaneously complimented me on my outfit, clearly understanding exactly what I'd done, so it was all worthwhile!
The production we saw is touring all over the UK and Ireland, so if you live in one of those countries, you have ample opportunity to catch it yourselves if you are interested!
My first encounter with this story was reading the script of the play what must be almost 25 years ago now, and I've wanted to see an actual production of it ever since. All the more so after watching the classic 1989 ITV adaptation of it last week by way of preparation. In fact, that worked even better than expected, as the stage play begins after the action of the story has ended, with the protagonist (Arthur Kipps) asking a young actor to help him tell the story. So it was quite easy to imagine the Kipps of the ITV version going on to be the Kipps of this stage production, some decades later.
We had seats a looooonng way up in the gods, because I only found out it was even on late in the day when there weren't many tickets left. At York's Grand Opera House, that meant very steeply-raked rows with terrible leg-room, so we probably didn't see it to its absolute best effect. Nevertheless, it delivered some really effective chills for a theatre production. Joel's hand got a good squeezing at certain points! Very good use made of a beating-heart sound effect, some sudden plunges into darkness, projected silhouettes etc. Also nice creative work with a small selection of basic props which 'became' a myriad of different things during the course of the play - especially a large wicker trunk which served as back-stage storage, a desk, a train carriage seat, a horse-drawn trap, a bed, and Alice Drablow's document repository.
One of the things I really liked when I read the script was the double-layered approach the story. It begins with Kipps and the actor he has hired discussed how to tell his story, and beginning some read-throughs, after which they 'go into' the story itself, 'becoming' the various characters within it but also periodically coming back 'out' of the narrative to comment further on matters of stage production. During this process, a Woman in Black appears at the appropriate moments in the story, but she isn't played by either of them, and the implication of course is that she isn't merely 'in' the story but is actually manifesting in the empty theatre they're using, with ghastly implications for them - and perhaps even for us, the real-world audience.
It's a very clever device, not merely 'meta' for the sake of it, but adding a layer of thrill and ambiguity around where the line lies between reality and imagination. It worked well in this production - though I think I'd have had the Woman standing silently somewhere within the actual auditorium at a couple of points for that extra blurring of realities. However, some business at the beginning around the protagonist not being a natural performer was slightly over-egged, and played for laughs in a way that then set the audience up to respond to some of the later chills with self-conscious laughter that I'm not sure added to the experience.
One thing I hadn't remembered was that once Kipps and his hired actor get into the story, it begins on Christmas Eve with Kipps' family telling ghost stories around the fire - way to acknowledge the grand tradition within which your ghost story belongs! I also had fun turning up in all-black Victoriana, just for the lulz. We intended to take a picture next to one of the posters for the play, but there wasn't really room amongst the crowds coming out at the end. However, one woman spontaneously complimented me on my outfit, clearly understanding exactly what I'd done, so it was all worthwhile!
The production we saw is touring all over the UK and Ireland, so if you live in one of those countries, you have ample opportunity to catch it yourselves if you are interested!
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