THE WOMAN IN BLACK at Rep Theater Review

“The Woman In Black,” on stage at the Repertory Theater of St. Louis until Oct. 26, is easily the best theatrical offering for the Halloween season this year, and maybe any year. A classic Victorian ghost story told in a creatively unique way, the London production of Susan Hill’s novel features only two actors but tells such a haunting, evocative, emotional tale that nothing more is really needed to send chills through the audience. Of course, the Rep does add those extras, in this case perfect sound effects, use of screens and subtle projections, and fog especially, to draw you in, suspend your disbelief. and be caught in the grip of first-class storytelling of the spooky kind.

The production is directed by Robin Herford, and Stephen Mallatratt adapted the novel for the stage. The two characters in the play are Arthur Kipp (David Acton), a British lawyer still haunted years after by his horrirfying experiences at an isolated mansion on the foggy, chilly moors Northern English, and the actor/manager of a theater, billed only as The Actor (James Byng). Kipp hopes that finally telling this eerie tale he has kept secret all these years will free him from the grip of those memories. To do that, he hires a theater and the theater’s actor/manager to help him present his story to a large gathering of family and friends. The lawyer has written up his experiences and plans to simply read that tome to his audience, because he is not an actor. But the actor/manager tries to persuade the lawyer to try a better way, by acting out the story and making it visual, enhanced with sound effects and a few props. The Actor works to convince Kipp this is both a better way to tell it, and faster, because, as the Actor points out, reading the novella-length narrative the lawyer wrote would take several hours.

The cast actually have three actors who share the roles, with Ben Porter, alternating in the two parts. There is a bit more but let’s leave that for you to discover at the show.

Arthur Kipp has kept his secret of what happened to him for decades but he tells his terrifying tale. As a young lawyer, Arthur Kipp was given an assignment to handle the estate of an elderly widow, who had been the sole occupant of an estate and manor house, Eel Marsh House, on the edge of the sea in the northern English moors. Kipp thought it would be a simple case, and even relished getting out in the country, but he found the weather chilly and wet, and the people of the nearby village chillier yet. No one wanted to talk to him about Eel Marsh House, the old woman who lived there, seemed frightened even to mention it. Certainly no one wanted to go there. There seemed to be rumors of something that had happened long ago, and of a woman in black, but no one will tell Kipp anything.

Traveling out the to the remote mansion was difficult, passing through bog and marsh, only to reach the decaying, empty house, which is hardly habitable. Further, the mansion stands on a rocky crag on the edge of the sea, and is connected to the mainland only by a causeway that can only be crossed at low tide. Miss the tide, and you were stuck there for the night, until the tide receded during the day.

The staging of this play is very clever, brilliant even. The original version called for two actors on a bare, or nearly bare, stage with minimal props. But the Rep offers an enhanced version of that, still starting basically with a bare-bones set, but adding a few more theatrical elements as it unfolds. Very effective use of sound effects, fog and lighting, especially with screens, draws into this ghostly mystery, until we are completely enveloped in the tale. Literally, at one point.

Sound effects create the wind and rain, lighting gives us long shadows and half-lit nooks, theater effects add in fog, and the actors create the creeping sense of dread that makes this show grippingly scary, much more that most.

Much of the play’s magic comes from the cast, of course, who are outstanding. The telling of this ghost story moves back and forth between immersing us in the events from long ago that haunt Arthur Kipp, and the play’s present-day of the Actor coaching Kipp in telling his story. When Kipp is acting out his story, playing his younger self, the Actor plays the other characters. Donning a jacket or a hat helps the transformation, a table becomes a horse-draws cart, those casually draped curtains in the back are back lit to reveal hidden staircases or rooms. Coming out of character, changing the lighting or removing a hat, and we are back on the theater’s boards.

The mood and atmosphere this play creates are gripping, making it one of the best, and scariest things I have seen on stage in some time. It is hard to describe how immersive and eerie this play is but it does all the things a well-told ghost story should do. Spines will tingle, and a few jumps will jolt the audience, as these marvelous actors, and the folks doing the theatrical effects, transport us to this haunting world.

If you like ghost stories, or just want to get in the Halloween mood, THE WOMAN IN BLACK is an excellent treat for anyone who enjoys both a good scare and a well-told tale.

The Repertory Theater of St. Louis’ “The Woman In Black” is playing in the Mainstage theater at the Loretto Hilton Theater in Webster Groves, now through Oct. 26.

© Cate Marquis