BY WENDY ELLIOTT
Kings County Advertiser/Register
The play Pamela Halstead is directing for Valley Summer Theatre in Wolfville has a fantastic pedigree. The Woman in Black - a successful novel written by Susan Hill in the 1980s was adapted by Stephen Mallatratt for the stage and is still running in London's West End more than 20 years after making its debut.
Recently, Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe landed the lead role in a new film version.
The Woman in Black will previews August 5 with opening night August 6.
Now a classic of the British stage canon, Halstead says the play has proven the power of a well-told story. The ghost story is about the appearance of a wasted young woman in a remote coastal area. The locals are reluctant to talk about her - and her terrible purpose.
The play unfolds around the conversations of two men, played by Acadia University drama professor Robert Seale and Rhys Bevan-Jones, a young Halifax actor, as they attempt to understand what happened on Eel Marsh years ago.
“It’s a great piece of theatre,” says Halstead, “and a fantastic script. Mallatrat captured the novel and put a theatrical spin on it.”
Unlike many movies today that trade on huge special effects, Halstead says The Woman in Black has the power of sitting around a campfire and listening to a great ghost story.
Halstead directed Love Letters for VST last year. She has tremendous respect for producer Bruce Klinger and agrees with him Wolfville should have summer theatre. There was a gap after the Atlantic Theatre Festival closed, and she believes “audiences here, along with the inns and restaurants, can support a summer here.”
The rest of the year, she is artistic director at Lunchbox Theatre in Calgary. She spent six years at Ship’s Company Theatre in Parrsboro, producing a record number of world premiere productions.
Shows run until August 22 from Tuesday through Saturday at 8 p.m., with weekend matinees at 2 p.m. Tickets at The Box of Delights for $25 plus HST and $18 plus HST for students.
