Review: 'The Woman In Black'

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Holly O’Nione

Theatre Review

On the 3rd of November we travelled to The Churchill Theatre in Bromley where we set out to see a performance of The Woman in Black.

The Woman in Black is a thriller, which was taken from the novel by Susan Hill. It was about a solicitor who is sent to look at the legal documents of an old lady who has recently died in a large house. Elements such as a mysterious deaths and large houses in remote locations are often used in the thriller genre. When the man checks the documents he is locked in and haunted by the spectral “woman in black” and slowly uncovers the horrific secrets that lie within the house.

The style of performance wasn’t naturalistic as the actors talked directly to the audience. It was performed quite originally, in a way that an actor was performing a story as it was told to him, and shockingly as he acts it out the events reoccur. This is a very unusual and effective way of performing a ghost story. The style of performance fit the plot exceedingly well, even making it more interesting and aiding the twist in the conclusion of the play.

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The acting was extremely convincing. The two actors managed to play several different roles convincingly. A clever device was used: the characters would bump into each other after walking away, and from then on they’d be different characters after that initial moment. They also changed things important for characterisation, such as: voice, gesture and posture. Not only did this define the characters clearly, I thought this was excellent and a credit to their acting abilities.

The same basic set was kept the same throughout the play; however, subtle changes were made. For example: stairs at the top ...

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