How to Play as Arthur Again
| The Woman in Blackness | |
|---|---|
 Fortune Theatre | |
| Written by | Susan Hill Stephen Mallatratt (accommodation) |
| Date premiered | 1987 (Scarborough) 1989 (London) |
| Genre | Horror story, ghost story |
| Setting | North eastern Britain |
The Woman in Blackness is a 1987 stage play, adjusted by Stephen Mallatratt. The play is based on the 1983 book of the same proper noun by English writer Susan Hill. The play is currently being produced by Pow Productions, led past Peter Wilson. It is notable for simply having three actors perform the whole play. It was first performed at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, in 1987. The production opened in London's West End in 1989 and is all the same existence performed there, becoming the 2d longest-running non-musical play in Westward End history, subsequently The Mousetrap.[1]
Book synopsis [edit]
The book follows the story of Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor, equally he journeys to the minor market place town of Crythin Gifford to attend the funeral of a customer, Mrs Alice Drablow. At the funeral, he sees a young woman with a wasted face, dressed all in black, standing in the churchyard.
Bemused by the villagers' reluctance to speak of the adult female in blackness, Arthur goes to Eel Marsh House, Mrs. Drablow's sometime home, an old building in the middle of a marsh, which is cutting off from the mainland at high tide. Sorting through Mrs Drablow's papers, he finds a box of messages, and ultimately discovers the dreadful surreptitious of the Woman in Black – to his ain terrible cost.
Plot summary [edit]
The plot remains true-blue to Loma's book, just adds an actress dimension of a play inside a play.
Human action I [edit]
In an empty Victorian theatre, an onetime Arthur Kipps is reading aloud from a manuscript of his story. A young actor, whom he hired to help dramatise the story, enters and criticises him for his poor delivery. After an argument, they agree to perform the story, with the Player playing a younger Kipps, and Kipps himself playing all the other characters and narrating the play.
Young Kipps learns of the death of the elderly and reclusive widow, Mrs. Drablow. He travels to Crythin Gifford to sort through her individual papers. On the train, he meets a local landowner, Mr. Samuel Daily, who tells him a little most Mrs. Drablow. Upon their arrival at Crythin Gifford, Mr. Daily drops off Arthur at the local inn where he is to stay the night.
The side by side morning, young Arthur meets with a local homo enlisted to help him, Mr. Horatio Jerome. They go to Mrs. Drablow's funeral together, where Arthur outset sees the Woman in Black. At first feeling sorry for the immature woman, who was apparently suffering from some dreadful wasting disease, he asks Mr. Jerome who she is. Mr. Jerome is visibly terrified and hurries Arthur away from the church, insisting that there was no woman. After their render to the inn, Mr. Jerome recovers somewhat and says that a local human volition arrive presently to escort Arthur to Mrs. Drablow'due south firm.
The local man, a villager named Keckwick, arrives a few moments later. To Arthur'southward please, Keckwick drives Arthur in an one-time-fashioned pony and trap out to the firm. Arthur spends the day sorting through Mrs. Drablow'south papers and is amazed to find out how many there are. He also finds an old cemetery outside the house, where he once again encounters the Woman in Blackness. Later that day, a thick fog settles on the marsh, cutting Arthur off from the mainland. He tries to return across the causeway on foot in the fog, but chop-chop becomes lost and is forced to retrace his steps to Eel Marsh Firm. Earlier he gets there, he hears the sound of a pony and trap on the causeway.
Assuming that it is Keckwick returning, he turns back into the fog. It soon becomes apparent that the pony and trap are in trouble, and he hears it bulldoze off the causeway onto the marsh. Arthur listens helplessly as the pony and trap get stuck in the mire and its occupants, including a young child, are drowned. Arthur returns to the house in a state of stupor. Whilst he is exploring the house, he discovers a locked door. Due to his emotional state, he becomes distressed when he is unable to open information technology. He is surprised when Keckwick returns a few hours subsequently.
Human action I ends with a monologue from immature Arthur in which he explains that he is sure, although he does non know how, that the sounds he heard were from neither Keckwick nor any living thing, but from things that are dead.
Deed II [edit]
Arthur seeks the assist of Mr. Jerome, either to accompany him back to Eel Marsh Business firm or to ship him someone else to help. Mr. Jerome becomes profoundly terrified and insists that nobody in the village would willingly accompany him to the firm. Arthur later meets Sam Daily and tells him of his experiences. Sam is concerned and invites Arthur to his house, where he gives Arthur his dog, Spider, as a companion.
Returning to Eel Marsh House, Arthur finds that the locked room is a child's nursery, abased merely in perfect status. Later that nighttime, he hears a knocking audio in the plant nursery. He and Spider investigate. The nursery has been ransacked, and an empty rocking chair is rocking back and forth as if somebody had only left it. Arthur fearfully returns to his bedroom.
The next day, Arthur finds correspondence from near sixty years ago, between Mrs. Drablow and a mysterious adult female who is patently her sister. The woman, Jennet Humfrye, unmarried and with child, was sent away by her family. A son was born to her in Scotland, and her family immediately pressured her to give him up for adoption. Despite her strong resistance, Jennet ultimately relented and gave the child to Mrs. Drablow and her hubby.
Unable to bear existence parted from her son, Jennet returned to Crythin Gifford subsequently a time and stayed with her sister. She was allowed to see her son provided that she never reveal her true relationship to him. The kid became attached to Jennet. She planned to run away with him, but before she could manage it, a tragic effect occurred. The kid, his nursemaid, and his dog went out onto the marsh one day in a pony and trap driven past Keckwick's father. A fog of a sudden descended upon the marsh and they became lost. Riding blindly, they became stuck in the quicksand, and all were drowned. Jennet, driven mad by grief, contracted a terrible wasting disease and died several years later. Immediately after her death, she returned as the Woman in Black.
Arthur all of a sudden becomes subject to a series of terrifying events in Eel Marsh Business firm and eventually collapses on the marsh when trying to rescue Spider. He is found and taken back to Crythin by Sam Daily, who assures him that Spider is all right. He tells Arthur the story of the Adult female and explains that many of the local people he has met (Jerome, Keckwick, and Daily himself) have all lost a kid after seeing her.
Kipps returns to London and marries his fiancée, Stella. At a country fair, Stella and their baby son Joseph go for a ride on a pony and trap. Arthur sees the Woman in Blackness footstep in front of the trap, terrifying the pony. Joseph is thrown from the trap and hits a tree, killing him instantly. Stella dies 10 months later due to injuries sustained in the accident.
Having come to the end of their rehearsal, Kipps and the Actor sit downward to remainder. Kipps wonders if performing the play for his family will exorcise the spirit of the Woman in Black. The Role player asks Kipps about the "pale immature lady with the wasted confront" playing the Woman in Blackness. Mirroring the before scene with Mr. Jerome, Kipps, terrified, denies that anyone else had been in the theatre, implying that the real Woman in Black had been present.
Production history [edit]
The play premiered in 1987 at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough equally a "Christmas ghost story".[two]
The play opened in the Due west Terminate at the Lyric Hammersmith in Jan 1989,[3] then moved to the Strand Theatre in Feb 1989[4] and subsequently transferred to the Playhouse in Apr 1989 and finally the Fortune Theatre in August 1989.[5] [6] [vii] Management was by Robin Herford, the Set Designer was Michael Holt and the Lighting Designer was Kevin Sleep. The original London cast (1989) was Charles Kay as Arthur Kipps and John Duttine as The Role player.[3] In publicity literature, the actress in the championship function is surreptitiously listed every bit 'Vision', merely was originally Bristol Old Vic Theatre School-trained Nicola Sloane. For the 30th Anniversary year the West Finish cast from May 2018-March 2019 was Richard Promise equally Arthur Kipps and Mark Hawkins equally the Actor, so from nineteen March 2019 Stuart Fox with Matthew Spencer.
Post-obit the closure of the theatre due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, the evidence will reopen on 15 September 2021 and will see both Terence Wilton and Max Hutchinson returning to play respectively Arthur Kipps and The Actor.[viii]
Education [edit]
The play is currently used every bit a live theatre functioning in the GCSE and IGCSE Drama curricula and as a basis for comparative essays and sometimes theatre reviews.[ citation needed ] Information technology can also be seen as helpful to GCSE/IGCSE English Literature students, as one of the set texts a student can choose to study is The Woman in Black.[ citation needed ]
References [edit]
- ^ Top 10 Longest-Running London Theatre Shows Londonist.com. Retrieved nineteen February 2012
- ^ Wiegand, Chris. "'The Woman in Black' and other W End haunts" The Guardian, 11 June 2009
- ^ a b Wardle, Irving. "Imaginative and hideously real trap; Review of 'The Woman in Blackness' at the Lyric, Hammersmith". The Times (London), 19 Jan 1989, Event 63295
- ^ Church building, Michael. "Theatre. 'The Adult female In Black' - Strand." The Independent, 22 February 1989, p.28
- ^ (no author). "'Woman in Black' Celebrates 10th Anniversary". whatsonstage.com, 7 June 1999
- ^ Dalglish, Darren. "'The Woman in Black'". londontheatre.co.uk, 29 Jan 2002
- ^ Bosanquet, Theo. "'Woman in Blackness' Embarks on Tenth Tour in 2010". whatsonstage.com, 23 December 2009
- ^ Susan Hill's The Adult female in Blackness – 2021 Full Cast Confirmed LondonBoxOffice.co.uk. Retrieved 3 September 2021
External links [edit]
- Official Website
- Susan Hill Website
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Woman_in_Black_(play)
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