Lighting effects play a big role as a tension builder and (in the production I saw) a prop. If we had to create a scary situation we wouldn’t do it in perfect lighting we would do it in a dim light. The adaptor has already stated the importance of darkness. When Kipps went looking for a ghost outside with a torch “the lights fade and the only light is from Kipps’ torch”, he is in a very dim light and then he drops and breaks the torch leaving him in complete darkness. When I saw it in London the used spotlights in a range of different ways e.g. when Kipps heads for Eel Marsh House in the dark they have a light in the shape of a big tall haunted house in the distance this braces us some scary happenings in the story. Also near the end when we see the Woman in black climb up a grand staircase upstage the banisters are made from a spotlight. But the most effective way in which it was used was when Kipps came stumbling inside the house and there was a light illuminating the only locked door in the house, this was effective because it as the only locked door in the house and this emphasises that something important is behind the door. This makes us, as the audience need to know what was behind it and what was going to happen to Kipps, all building up tension to scare the audience.
Punctuation is very useful when you are reading the script it gives the actor more information on how the part is meant to be played e.g. “But no-one had been there! No-one!” gives the actor the idea that he’s meant to play the part, for this example it is scared. Also when Kipps has just had a ghostly experience he talks to himself in rhetorical questions “How can I explain”. This adds the feeling that he might think that he’s dreaming or going crazy, which confuses us which makes the tension build and build inside us wondering what’s happening next. Overall I think punctuation builds the tension by emphasising on curtain words to bring out how the character feels and how they should act.
The way the actor plays the part and how he says his lines is very important when tension needs building. When Kipps is sleeping we here the sound of the rocking chair from the nursery, the way Kipps sits up frozen is very effective and is a perfect example of what I’m trying to say. Also when Kipps is having his nightmare with voices going around his head (Not in the version that I saw) the voices are all in half sentences of what he has already been through, I think the vision of him tossing and turning at this point would accompany this perfectly. I think the dog spiders actions gave us a good idea of when something scary was about to happen e.g. when he barked and shivered we know this because we hear the ‘actor’ narrate to us what the dog is up to this adds tension because it is said that dogs have a sixth sense and when spider was worried this made Kipps worried which built on the tension that the audience felt.
The Adaptor also uses a climax/anticlimax technique, which consists of a moment when the tension is built right up to its extremest form, then almost instantaneously it will drop down pleasant and calm atmosphere which is in full light, but then it shall be rocketed up by the sight of the Woman in Black. The clearest case of this is when Kipps runs outside with a torch because he hears the pony and trap, then to make things worse he is in pitch black because he drops the torch. He comes back inside after hearing it be ‘submerged’ to find the nursery door open. He walks slowly inside to find “A bed in one corner, made up and complete …A model ship, complete with masts and sails of linen” then he sits down in peace with no fear, and then “the wind begins to rise… it is roaring around the house” and we see the Woman in Black. This adds tension because when the tension declines we get a feeling that it will shoot back up to a high point again and this makes the audience feel tense.
Overall I think that it was a very successful adaptation and I thought the version I saw at the fortune theatre in London was excellent, with very few props just added to the effect that it was done with no plan or organisation. I think the tension is created on stage then raised by our imagination. In my opinion it was the combination of Lighting, Sounds and How the actor shows us his feelings with a range of techniques including pauses and how the actor puts forwards his words it all adds up to create the tension to make us scared. The only part that I felt was poor was when the real Kipps said he didn’t hire an actor and he didn’t know what the man was talking about, I thought it was a corny end to an otherwise good and successful adaptation of Susan Hill’s Novel.
