my drama group visited the theatre to watch the "Woman in Black". It's a play which has been adapted from the novel by Susan Hill and directed by Robin Herford

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On the 21st of November I and my drama group visited the theatre to watch the “Woman in Black”. It’s a play which has been adapted from the novel by Susan Hill and directed by Robin Herford. The play involved 2 characters; Paul Shelley and Damien Matthews.

The play was about a woman called Alice Drablow who has given birth to a baby boy but was unable to cope. She let her sister adopt the baby in the hope that she will take better care of him but he dies in a car crash later on. Alice then dies of heart failure and her ghost comes to haunt people with young babies so they can feel her never ending bereavement and misery. This is the story line but the play is told by a man who was haunted by this woman giving his insight on the situation.

His play was preformed and directed using Brecht’s techniques. This means that the audience was

aware that this was just a play and weren’t drawn into the play. They worked this technique by

 having a play within a play. The audience know the actors we’re telling a story, we recognise this

 from the beginning when Mr Kipps introduces himself by reading a prologue. He acted this badly

 by purpose by keeping the same pitch of voice in a monotonous/tedious tone. I quite enjoyed this

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 technique since it made the play comical at the beginning and helped me to understand that we

 were not supposed to be drawn in since he is making a “mistake” in his acting. The audience were

 also able to see the actors change their costumes which helped to establish the distance. Every time

 the scene reached near its peak, and actor would go and change their garments. This effect made

 me realise that I was watching the actors and distanced me from being too involved. It made the

 pace smooth since they didn’t have to keep coming on and coming ...

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