The Woman In Black Review

I first saw The Woman In Black stage play back when I was doing my GCSES, as part of our Drama coursework we had to do a theatre review, and that year coming to our local theatre was The Woman In Black. I remember vividly where me and my friends sat, that we attended 'schools night' (where various schools attend one evening show all at once), and also that we were completely terrified by the end of the show. I think everyone fed off each other and as the audience was full of 14 to 16 year olds, we all felt tense and as young people do - their emotions become intensified. So as the woman in black first appears and all the girls are screaming down in the stalls, we're all looking over the balcony and gripping each others hands tightly to see whats going on. The main thing I remember though - was that although we were scared out of our wits and that it was an absolutely incredible show, so when Meg mentioned wanting to see it, and we found out it was not only coming to the Everyman Theatre again but that we could also get £5 tickets, we jumped at the chance to buy them.

The Woman in Black was written in 1983 by Susan Hill and follows the story of Arthur Kipps. Stephen Mallatratt, a playwright, adapted the story into a play back in 1987, before it first appeared on stage in late 1987 before appearing in the West End in 1989; making it the second longest non-musical play within the west end. The story of Arthur Kipps is portrayed completely differently to that of the 2012 film which stares Daniel Radcliffe. On stage, the play only features 2 main characters (excluding that of the actual Woman in Black), The Actor and Arthur Kipps. The Actor - portrayed by Matthew Spencer - is helping an elderly Arthur Kipps (David Acton) to tell the story of his encounter with the woman in black to his family and friends by performing his story on stage. It is obvious at the beginning of the story that Kipps has never performed before, and so he recruits the Actor to help him perform his story. Within their onstage play, The Actor plays a young Arthur Kipps, whilst the 'actual' Arthur Kipps plays various other characters that appear within his story - these include Keckwick - the driver of the Horse and Trap, Mr Bentley - Arthur Kipps employer who sends him to Eel Marsh house and Samuel Daily - who befriends Kipps on his train to Crythin Gifford and who Kipps seeks advice from about Eel Marsh house - as well as the narrator of the story and various other characters Kipps meets along his journey.

At the beginning of the play, they regularly switch from reality into rehearsing 'the play', showing the alternate stories via white and blue lighting. However, towards the second half of the story, The Actor encourages them to rehearse the play continuously without stopping. Although I did enjoy the first part of the story, the switching back and forth between reality and the play, did get slightly irritating. It was understandable as to why they used this technique as it ensured that the audience remembered that they were performing a play within a play, but also to make it slightly more realistic - for example, the day would come to an end, so they'd stop rehearsing the play and come back the next day to continue. However, I found the second half of the play much more enjoyable as it was more continuous for the story and allowed me to get more invested in the story being told.

After the pairing began telling the story, we follow a young Arthur Kipps (aka The Actor) from London, where he receives his assignment, on his journey to Crythin Gifford, and on the horse and trap to Eel Marsh house. This is where Arthur begins seeing the woman in black and hearing creepy noises around the house - the rocking chair with no one in it, the doors slamming and deafening screams. Once this begins he starts unveiling the story of Alice Drablow - the owner of Eel Marsh house up until her recent death, Jennet Humfrye her sister who is the infamous Woman in Black and Jennets son Nathaniel who is adopted by Alice and her husband before his devastating death when he was only 7 years old; and is the sole reason for Jennet becoming the Woman in Black in the first place.

The play entails you to use your imagine quite a lot, the set stays the same throughout the whole play, with the chairs and baskets being used as different props within different scenes. The horse and trap is created by the two baskets, with the actors bobbing up and down and diegetic sound effects of horse hooves. The chairs are used to show Arthur Kipps switching trains for his journey to Crythin Gifford; and the dog that Samuel Daily lends Arthur to keep him company at the house is created by imaginary stroking and patting, along with the actors crouching down to pet the dog and talk to it. I think that all the ways they create these objects is really clever, they do it in such as way that it isn't hard for us to picture the actual objects and fill in the spaces with our imagination; the actors do all the work with their movements and it makes it easy and enjoyable for us to know what they are doing and when. These elements also added humour into the play - although its a tense horror story and for the most part we were sat with our scarves rolled up and covering our faces, the little bit of humour they injected into the play really made a difference. I can't describe how The Actor crouching down and petting an imaginary dog and making a baby face at it is an hilarious combination - but it is. The interaction between The Actor and the real Arthur Kipps whilst they're in the reality element of the play was also hilarious - their personalities just mixing together; David Acton and Matthew Spencer just effortlessly played off each other. Another element that created a lot of laughter from the audience were the very tense moments - where the darkened stage and dragged out silence made everyone believe they were going to get a frightening jump from the Woman in Black and instead a door slammed or there was a loud scream, yet everyone jumped out of their seats anyway - created a huge amount of laughter within the audience, so much so that parts of what were being said on stage were missed.

I would 100% recommend going to see The Woman in Black if you ever gain the opportunity to. It is a wonderfully terrifying show that provides both tension and humour throughout. I'm somebody who has never been a fan of horror films - there is something about this story that I absolutely love. I do remember being a lot more scared when I saw the play the first time but I think that was just because I was much younger. No matter who you are you're guaranteed to jump out of your seat at least once. The lighthearted elements of the play are a nice release to the very tense moments, and the little twists that are injected into the play make it a lot more interesting too - meaning if you have seen the film before it won't even matter as the play is completely different. Although I've already seen the play once, I think if I do ever get the chance to go again, I'd definitely take it. You never entirely remember a play completely and every director is bound to change small elements anyway.

The Woman in Black is currently touring around the UK and playing at the Fortune Theatre in London. To find out more information about the dates and show click here.

"From the start it has been the Theatres business to entertain people...it needs no other business than fun"

Until Next Time,

Alice x

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T - Theatre (Hetty Feather Review)

Hetty Feather is a theatre show based on Jacqueline Wilson's bestselling book of the same name. The story is based on a young girl, Hetty Feather who is known for her red-hair and fiery temper. As a baby she is taken to the Foundling Hospital, where her mother abandons her. We follow her story as she is moved to a foster home from the ages of 1-6 and then returns to the Foundling Hospital as a curious and talkative 6 year old, who wants to discover who her real mother is and what she was originally named before becoming Hetty Feather (this is what the whole story is based around and is finally revealed at the end of the story)

The play was created back in 2014 and other than the two musicians who play on-stage instruments, the play only uses 6 actors and one stage set. All of the actors (apart from Phoebe Thomas aka Hetty Feather) play various roles, switching from their main roles of playing Hetty's foster siblings/mother to playing circus characters, staff and children at the foundling hospital as well as many other roles. I think the way they've created the play is very clever and unique. Although you have to use your imagination in some parts, the ways they represented and created different elements of the play was very creative. For example, to represent the characters (such as Hetty and Gideon) as babies they used a blanket as a prop and had the actors follow around where the blanket was passed to - making baby noises such as babbling and crying, it was such a clever way of getting the audience to understand which actor was playing which baby and helped us understand their personalities before they were even old enough to talk and walk.  

The book was released back in 2009 and although I began to read the book, I never actually finished it so watching the play at the beginning of this month, made me only remember small parts and therefore only minor changes that had been made between the book and the play. For example, at the foster home Hetty doesn't find out where the other children are going until she, herself is returned to the Foundling Hospital; however, in the play, her and the other children are quickly made aware that just before they turn 6, they will be returning to the hospital. 

The play is aimed at families and young children but I think it's suitable for all ages as the way they've created and set out the play makes it an interesting and unique story that everyone can enjoy.

To find out more about the show click here!

"Great theatre is about challenging how we think and encouraging us to fantasize about a world we aspire to" 

Until Monday, 

Alice x 

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Pantomine!

Our local Panto this year was Cinderella, and although I haven't been to the panto for years now, when my mum said her Women's Guild were booking tickets to go, me and my sisters jumped at the chance. Cinderella has been my favourite Disney Princess since I was little, and I especially wanted to go and see this show. We went to the panto on the 8th of January and although we were a little bit later going, it was still a full house.

The "Comic Lead" was a circus clown called Tweedy. He played a character called Buttons who was "only given his role just before the start of show as the actual comic lead fell ill". However, this was cleverly done as it meant whenever he walked on stage and shouted "What's my name?" the audience had to remind him of his characters name and reply "Buttons". Buttons was definitely my favourite character, even as an 18 year old girl, I found him absolutely hilarious. Ok so some of the stunts he pulled where he repeatedly did the same 'silly thing' again and again did become annoying even if they did entertain the younger audience members, but for the most part, the jokes he told and the stupid things he did were really funny. My favourite parts were actually when him and William Elliot - who played the Baroness aka Cinderella's mother - made a mistake or created an off-script joke (some of which even made them come out of character because of the hilarity of it). You could tell the actors had done the pantomime together in previous years because of how comfortable they were with improvising jokes whilst their characters were interacting.

I also liked how they included little bits about our town to make it seem as though the story was set in Cheltenham rather than a big city like London or Birmingham - For example the ugly step sisters said things such as "Lets go shopping up Montpellier" (the more expensive shopping area of Cheltenham) - it made the show seem more familiar and relatable and set the show in the present time rather than in the past. They also put there own twist on popular songs such as For the First Time in Forever from Frozen and Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran which I think also helped make the panto more modern.

Towards the end of the show they got some of the kids up on stage and asked the whole audience to join in with one of their original songs "These are Talented Shoes" by singing along and copying their hand actions. I think this was a really nice touch to get the audience interacting with them one last time and it was something both children and adults could take part in.

The fun nature of the pantomime has definitely made me want to go next year as well, it makes you feel like a kid again and you aren't embarrassed to join in with the silly activities as everyone is joining in around you anyway. Visiting the theatre isn't something I get to do as often as I'd like because of the costly price of tickets, however whenever I do visit it always reminds me how much I enjoy going to see different shows.

Our local Pantomime has finished now, however, you can look into your local Christmas panto towards the end of the year - it's definitely worth your time and money and it's a great way to enjoy the Christmas or new year spirit with your loved ones.

"Madness, mayhem, laughing till your tummy hurts, that's what's best about Pantomime"

Until Next Time,

Alice x

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