BY WENDY ELLIOTT
Kings County Advertiser/Register
More than seven million people have watched and enjoyed The Woman in Black. All lived to report one of the spookiest and gripping plays ever staged.
I know I was tempted to grab my seatmate at the opening of the second Valley Summer Theatre production last week, and she confessed the same urge afterward.
Now on stage at the Al Whittle Theatre in Wolfville, The Woman in Black is a most entertaining play with a clever plot chock full of suspense. The period piece concerns a young solicitor, sent to wind up the affairs of a recently deceased woman, in a marshy coastal region. The dead woman had led a reclusive life in a remote and mysterious house, but she is not the wasted creature in black we see lurking.
Arthur Kipps, played with aplomb by Rhys Bevan-John, has no help in his duties from the locals in Crythin Gifford. All believe the house is cursed.
Jumping back in time, Kipps recounts his ghostly experiences with the aid of a sceptical actor/ director, engaged to help him tell his story to family and friends in an intense bid to exorcise the past.
The play begins innocently enough, but as the pair reach further into Kipps’ darkest memories, they find themselves caught up in a world of eerie marshes and groaning winds.
It is remarkable, with the most basic props, relatively minimal set, a few key sound effects, along with the atmospheric drama and one’s individual imagination; this play can scare you stiff.
This play shows its literary origin in the beginning. It’s a tad slow starting off, but director Pam Halstead has cleverly used the house to stage her actors. This blocking device keeps our attention.
The Woman in Black is a two-hander that demands true professionalism. Bevan-John and Robert Seale, who plays a multitude of character roles, gave excellent performances opening night. Seale invites us in as he steps forward to say, “And so, imagine if you would, this stage an island, this aisle a causeway running like a ribbon between the gaunt grey house and the land.”
There is a kind of benign trickery when theatre at its best combines to create an atmosphere of dread. Here the playwright, Stephen Mallatratt, accumulates small effects toward our unease. A locked door without a keyhole, a music box that plays for no reason; added together, they raise goose bumps.
The tension in Halstead’s direction, Will Perkin’s split-second lighting design and the ghoulish soundscape by Terry Pulliam work. Victoria Marsden has outdone herself - yet again - in the ghostly setting, and costumer Janet MacLellan uses period attire to take us back in time.
Shows run until August 22, Tuesday through Saturday at 8 p.m., with weekend matinees at 2 p.m. Tickets at The Box of Delights are $25 plus HST, $18 plus HST for students.
welliott@kentvilleadvertiser.ca
