Scene changes are made easier since all of the main staging stays in its position for the whole play. This is common in a lot of plays since it saves time and makes sure the audience doesn’t lose concentration, one example of a play that does this is “Chicago”. Although when I went to see blood brothers, there was a large amount of props on stage and not many open spaces, but this was needed to effectively show the audience where the scenes were taking place. The woman in black used a very effective set design that made good use of the open-end staging that the play was preformed on. Other than the heavier props that stayed on all through the play, only small hand held props were used.
The use of sound was very impressive, sudden loud noises worked brilliantly at creating even more tension and frightening the audience. One of the props used well was a large wicker basket; it was used to store financial documents in the house, as a table on the train journey, and most comically as a seat on a horse and cart, with the two passengers bouncing up and down to show the movement. Sound effects were also used to create more realistic scenes by adding background sound, for example in the scene between Kipps and his senior, sounds from the street could be heard, such as voices, horses and carts and many other sounds that we normally don’t pay any attention to, this worked very well.
The makeup on the woman in black worked wonderfully to show her ghostly character, the black of her dress highlights her horrid face, it also works well at the end where just her head suddenly appears out of a black background in a spotlight. . At the start of the play the actor starts in the audience, I believe this is effective for audience members at the same level as him, but people in the upper circle were unable to see who was speaking for quite some time before he reached the stage.
There are a large amount of themes used in the Woman in Black, but I will focus on a few. Isolation is depicted to us, showing us how lonely the old woman must have been on her own in the house for 60 years, rarely getting visitors, this is shown by Kipps’s reaction at being cut off from the rest of society, and ultimately his panic and fear. Loss forms a large part of the play, from the woman in black having to unwillingly give up her child, to the solicitor’s wife and child being murdered on the sea side by the woman in black right in front of his eyes. Kipps almost breaks down and sobs as he retells the demise of his family; he still lives in fear that the woman in black will come for him.
Over all the play was quite impressive, and certainly unlike any play that I’ve seen before, but I’m not alone in thinking that the first part, was extremely dull and uneventful, however the second half is a lot more energetic and more than makes up for the lack of events in the first. All the characters were played very well (since the cast only included two people) both talked at a slower than normal conversation pace, this makes sure that the audience doesn’t miss any key points, both use enough volume to reach every person in the theatre (I was in the top circle and could hear every word). The older Kipps used a slow and droning tone, almost lifeless. The use of silence to create tension was a key part in the success of this play, and was used fantastically; the slightest unexpected noise would send the audience into a hail of screams. An example of this was when the torch fell from the man back pocket by mistake, and the whole theatre erupted with screams, this shows the amount of tension that was created, by him being in a dark place making no noise. This was what the play excelled at.
I believe that the play was successful at entertaining the audience overall, but could substantially improve the first half in order to keep the audiences attention. The play was the best use of sound effects I have seen yet, which impressed me greatly since they were all very simple, yet extremely effective. Despite its overall success I don’t think I would recommend it to a friend or family member to go to see this, I have viewed many other plays, which have been a lot more enjoyable and kept my attention focused for the whole performance.