The play I will be reviewing is called the Woman in Black, adapted by Stephen Mallatratt from the novel by Susan Hill. I viewed it on September the 17th at the Fortune Theatre in London.

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Drama Coursework

Theatre Review

The play I will be reviewing is called the Woman in Black, adapted by Stephen Mallatratt from the novel by Susan Hill. I viewed it on September the 17th at the Fortune Theatre in London.

The Woman in Black is a Gothic ghost/horror story set around the Victorian period in which Eel Marsh House surveys the windswept reaches of the salt marshes beyond Nine Lives Causeway. Arthur Kipps (Brian Miller), a junior solicitor, is summoned to attend the funeral of Mrs Alice Drablow, the house's sole inhabitant, unaware of the tragic secrets that lie hidden behind the shuttered windows. It is not until he glimpses a wasted young woman, dressed all in black, at the funeral, that a creeping sense of unease begins to take hold, a feeling deepened by the reluctance of the locals to talk of the woman in black - and her terrible purpose. Years later, as an old man, he recounts his experiences to an actor (William Rycroft) in a desperate attempt to exorcise the ghosts of the past. The play unfolds around the conversations of these two characters as they act out the solicitor's experiences on Eel Marsh all those years ago. Stephen Mallatratt's adaptation for the stage remains entirely true to the book itself and uses much of Susan Hill's own descriptive writing and dialogue, while transforming the novel into a totally gripping piece of theatre.                                                The play was preformed in a proscenium arch style staging, and they cleverly use a small amount of props to display several different locations, a transparent cloth hung down from the ceiling separating the back half of the stage, this was used to show the eeriness of the graveyard and child’s bedroom scene, it was used to great effect, adding a look of mist or haze when preformed on, this was particularly good when the shadow of the woman in black can be seen, and when a ghostly feeling is needed .

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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 ...

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