Victoria Lujan

Leonard Madrid
Theatre Appreciation
August 9, 2015

The Woman in Black

I saw The Woman in Black at the Fortune Theatre in London, England. It is the second

longest running play in Londons West End. The play is based off the book The Woman in

Black written by Susan Hill and was adapted for the stage by Stephen Mallatratt. The play was

written and first performed in 1987 in London, England. The play is considered a horror story or

a ghost story.

The play is about a man and an actor he has hired putting on a play about his horrifying past.

The play starts off with Mr. Kipps dully reading his manuscript while receiving directions from

the hired actor to add more emphasis and emotion into the reading. Eventually the actor

convinces Mr. Kipps to put on a play to relay the information to his family and thus they begin

rehearsing the play. Mr. Kipps plays all the supporting roles while the actor plays a young Mr.

Kipps. The play within the play starts off with Mr. Kipps learning of a reclusive widows death,

Mrs. Drablow, and is sent to sort through her private papers. He attends the funeral where he

notices a woman in black and promptly asks his local guide who she is. The man is noticeably

unsettled and doesnt answer Mr. Kipps questions and denies the existence of the woman in

black. A local man, Keckwick, arrives and takes Mr. Kipps, on a buggy and trap, to the widows

house so that he can begin sorting through her copious amounts of papers. He once again

encounters the woman in black outside of the house in a small cemetery.

Distraught he tries to leave but cannot because of dense eerie fog. He is relieved when he

hears a buggy and trap coming towards the house but then he hears the buggy crash and the

people in drown in the marsh. They suspense is very high when Mr. Kipps finds a locked door
Victoria Lujan
Leonard Madrid
Theatre Appreciation
August 9, 2015

and is unable to open it. A few hours later Keckwick arrives and takes him back to town. The

first act ends with a monologue from present day Mr. Kipps explaining that he is sure, although

he does not know how, that the sounds he heard were from neither Keckwick nor any living

thing, but from things that are dead.

He returns with a borrowed dog and hears many things bump in the night. He hears the iconic

thump of the rocking chair in the childs room upstairs. He finally confronts Sam Daily, who

tells him the whole story. Apparently, Alice Drablow had an unmarried sister named Jennet who

had a child out of wedlock. The Drablows adopted the boy, and kept the secret of his real

mother. And then, one day, the boy and his nanny were out riding with a pony and trap. There

was an accident, and they both drowned. Jennet saw the whole thing went crazy with grief and

anger, blamed her sister, and then diedonly to return in haunted, demented ghost form. Every

time she's been sighted a child dies. He asks Sam if a child has died this time and Sam says no.

Mr. Kipps is relieved and heads back to London soon as possible. He marries his fiance,

Stella, and they later have a child named Joseph. He thinks the past is behind him. One day, the

family goes to a fair. Joseph insists on going on a pony and trap, so Stella takes him while Arthur

stands nearby and watches. Just then, he sees the woman in black. As the pony and trap rounds

the corner, the woman in black steps in front of it and spooks the horse. There is a terrible

accident and both Stella and Joseph die from their wounds. And thus ends the sad, scary tale of

The Woman in Black. But this is not the end of the play. There is a great plot twist! When Mr.

Kipps and the actor are wrapping up the production of the play, the actor makes a comment

about Mr. Kipps hiring a woman to play the role of the woman in black in their play was a good
Victoria Lujan
Leonard Madrid
Theatre Appreciation
August 9, 2015

touch. Mr. Kipps face turns ghost white as he explains he never hired an actor. The play ends

with the iconic rocking chair and the womans face behind the gauze for a few seconds.

The play only had a two actors, Mr. Kipps and the actor. However, the actor plays a young

Mr. Kipps. When he is the actor his goal is to put on a good convincing performance for Mr.

Kipps family. When he plays a young Mr. Kipps he is a young junior solicitor with a fiance

back in London. He just wanted to get the job done in Crythin Gifford and for life to return to

normal but he is faced with dealing with the existence of the afterlife and escaping the fate of

seeing the Woman in Black. The main character that stood in his way was the woman in black

that would appear briefly to frighten the audience and add suspense. Old Mr. Kipps, on the other

hand, is a tired aged man who is still trying to move on with his life. His ultimate goal is to finish

the play to present his past to his family. When he is playing all the supporting characters and the

narrator he is used mostly to push the plot forward. When he takes on the roles of each character

he becomes them so completely you forget he is Mr. Kipps acting in a play. The actors were by

far the BEST actors I have ever seen! They were spot on! Without such perfect casting I dont

think a play with only two actors could have been pulled off. There was very minimal set design

and the actors acted out each scene with so much passion and emotion that there was no need for

a set at all. When they were acting out riding in the buggy you could see them bounce up and

down and keep the conversation going. When they were acting with the dog you believe there

was a dog following them around and being pet by them. I am almost at a loss for words for how

good the acting was.

The voice of the play was very serious and suspenseful. This kept me on the edge of my seat

with an eerie feeling in the air waiting for the next twist to happen. It has a solemn tone to it as
Victoria Lujan
Leonard Madrid
Theatre Appreciation
August 9, 2015

well making you feel the actors emotions very deeply. You could cut the tension in the air with

a knife. The design was very minimal and this allowed the audience to visualize and use their

imagination more making it more intimate. There was a coat rack in the corner of the set that

allowed for quick costume changes such as adding or removing a vest, jacket, or coat and gloves

and hats. The actors seamlessly changed costume on stage while talking and keeping the scene

progressing. There was a wicker chest that was used a table, bench, chair, and buggy. There was

also a small wooden chair used to enhance the scenes for when they were sitting down talking to

each other. The biggest part of the set design was a doorway at the end of the stage and a gauze

that allowed the audience to see the stairs and childs room upstairs, down stage, when lit up but

was just a black background without light behind it. The room was small with a bed and a few

toys and clothes, but most importantly there was a rocking chair. The men were both dressed in

nice trousers and a button up shirt and changed costumes by accessorizing with hats, scarves,

vest, and jackets. The lighting was dark and only lit up the action happening in the middle of the

stage. They used hues of green and blue and a fog machine to imitate the fog. They also used

recorded sounds of a buggy and trap crashing and a kid scream. There was also eerie music at

suspenseful moments to keep the audience on their toes. Most importantly there was the sounds

of the rocking chair rocking back and for and the woman in black scream blood curdling

screams. There were also recorded sound bits of her reading the letters she had sent to her sister.

The venue was fairly small and it made the play seem more intense and intimate. The woman in

black and the actor were able to come from behind the audience to scare them and run up on

stage to continue the scene. The stage itself was a thrust stage and it allowed the actors to get

very close to the audience making them feel like are in the action the play.
Victoria Lujan
Leonard Madrid
Theatre Appreciation
August 9, 2015

Overall this is by far the best play I have ever seen! It is now my absolute favorite and I

would recommend that everyone see it. It had every element you could ask for in a play and it

was just perfect! I had no idea a play could be pulled off with only two actors but it works so

flawlessly! The experience was made even better knowing that I was watching the play in the

same theatre it has been running in for the past 26 years! This play has been performed there

longer than I have even been alive! I do know if another play can impress me as much as this one

did.