Woman In Black Play Review

Woman in Black

Intro: It was on the 27th of January as our drama experience, we went to watch The Women in Black written in 1983 and the first play was in 1987. Since then the play has been performed at the Fortune Theatre since 1989 and is one of the most successful West End shows. Theatre Review-The Woman in Black "The Woman in Black" is set in England a play that is meant to scare the audience and have them watching with bated breath. The story centres Arthur Kipps who writes a play in order to tell of the terrible events that he survived. The plot involves the solicitor who is summoned to Crythin Gifford, a small market town which is completely cut off from the mainland. The main character has to attend to the funeral of Mrs Alice Drablow, an elderly widow who lived alone in Eel Marsh House. While situated at this solitary market town he encounters a mysterious woman in black who seems to haunt the whole town. He finds the 'woman in black' haunting the house he has to stay in, Eel Marsh house. He has to deal with the deceased woman's paper work and also encounters this mysterious woman in other areas of the town. Despite his questions, the locals refuse to help him and so Arthur must confront the sense of unease within the house and the appearances of the woman alone.
When I entered the theatre feelings were strong about the play, friends told me the play is going to be scary. I was expecting more about the play, I was expecting more characters for example. The stage was as big as I expected but what caught my eyes was the little catwalk on the stage. I could tell that it was old fashioned because of the wooden floor and other furniture.

The fortune theatre is a traditional West End theatre with a ‘proscenium arch’ stage. The back stage scenery is very interesting because throughout the play it is behind a see through curtain it helps add to the spooky nature of the play. When at the cemetery the whole thing is covered in sheets to represent a deserted grave yard, also a large cross is projected on to the back curtain at the funeral. . It also represents the house and the upstairs, adversity in the set is apparent all throughout the play. At different points in the play the woman in black is used as an offstage convention, she randomly appears to heighten the audiences fear and build dramatic tension. In the cemetery scene the back stage that was shown would be dark radiating a sinister feel. Although when in a relaxed scene such as the house and office scene, the character uses the wooden box as something to place his feet on demonstrating his relaxation.

Lighting: Lighting plays a key part in creating suspense within the play. Torches, candles and flashlights were used, the torch was used to see in the dark when the lights were turned off, and the flashlight was used to create tension the character (Arthur) who was in the dark had to give a signal. The women appears in many important scenes, like when Arthur entered the house she was walking around the housing causing trouble. In many scenes it was only Arthur walking around in the dark, at the end tension was created when the women in black was continuously tormenting Arthur and his family. Somewhere in play there were images created to create effects and to show the audience that they were in a different location for example the image of the cut out cross was created to show the scene was set in the gravy yard, the train was also created to show that the scene was set on a train, Lastly the image of the haunted house was reflected on the back curtain to show that they have arrived at the house. I like these images because it made it easy to understand what was going on and created tense.
The backstage wasn’t viewable

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