After running in London for the better part of 35 years, stage “spooktacle” ‘The Woman In Black’ finally gave up haunting the Fortune Theatre in March 2023 to make way for recent musical hit ‘Operation Mincemeat’.  However, the spirits of the dead never rest for long, and the spine-tingling chiller is bringing its scares to theatres across the country in a new UK tour.  Adapted by Stephen Mallatratt from Susan Hill’s classic 1983 novel, the play cast its eerie spell on audiences over 13,000 times in London, and is known for being the ghostly godfather of stage scares.  It combines a distressed stripped-back set with chillingly-effective sound and lighting, and has its story played out simply and slowly by a cast of just two (well, technically three, the clue’s in the title after all). 

Arthur Kipps (played here by Malcolm James) hires a young actor (Mark Hawkins) to dramatize the account he’s written of unnerving events he suffered earlier in his life, in an attempt to rid himself of the torment the memories bring him.  As a younger man, he was responsible for dealing with the legal formalities following the death of Alice Drablow, a reclusive spinster with seemingly no relatives or family to mourn her.  In order to sort through her estate, Kipps travels to her remote house, learning that it’s only accessible at low tide via a precarious causeway.  As he spends more time in the house, Kipps sees and hears things that can’t be explained and seem to suggest some kind of family tragedy, and begins to question if ghosts are haunting the vast old house or if he’s losing his mind.  The young actor performs as Kipps, retelling his tale, with Kipps playing the secondary characters in the story…..apart from one….

‘The Woman In Black’ has stood the test of time and earned its reputation of how to do scares on the stage, with it’s cleverness lying in its simplicity.  It takes its time, not rushing to bring the big jumps and never needing to resort to gore or horror to bring the chills.  Faithful to Hill’s original story, this is old-fashioned ghost-storytelling around the campfire, and leisurely played with plenty of detail and character depth to draw you in, so that when the shocks do come, they shatter the icy quiet like a sonic blast.  There are times when it does take this too far, and audiences may find themselves wishing it would quicken up the pace a bit (particularly in the first half), but like the shark in ‘Jaws’, keeping the antagonist in the shadowy depths for as long as possible reaps rewards in dramatic tension.  The masterstrokes in its creativity are undoubtedly its design elements (originally by Micheal Holt and Rod Mead, with lighting design for this production by Kevin Sleep and sound design by Sebastian Frost), an unsettling mix of half-lights and creepy noises that put the audience on edge from the beginning and keep them there.  ‘The Woman In Black’ doesn’t do brash over-the-top frights, and anyone wanting a more overt type of horror will likely be disappointed and in truth perhaps even bored.  It could arguably do with a couple more standout shocks to break up some of the talkier sections, but anyone wanting a quiet sneaking sort of fear slowly tiptoe up their spine will find a lot to enjoy. 

Malcolm James and Mark Hawkins make a great pairing, sharing strong chemistry and bouncing off each other well.  They also find a surprising amount of humour in the script which makes a nice balance to the cold ominous atmosphere around them, keeping the audience further off-balance as they question if they should be laughing or hiding behind their fingers.  Both roles bring their own challenges, and both actors rise well to these; James has a multitude of characters to play, along with Kipps’ lack of confidence at performing, while Hawkins has the lion’s share of the dialogue and convincingly portraying a slow descent into paralysing fear. 

‘The Woman In Black’s simple “slow-burn” approach will be frustrating to some, and absolutely enthralling to others, but there’s no denying its power and effectiveness as a truly chilling piece of theatre.  Without a drop of blood ever spilled, the play manages to raise pulses and neck-hairs like no other, and is a masterclass in suspense.  Fright-fans will want it to push its shock-value further and speed things up a bit, but it remains an absorbing tale from beyond the grave that doesn’t show any signs of loosening its grip on audiences any time soon.

‘The Woman In Black’ runs at Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday 6^th April 2024 before continuing on its UK tour.

Performance runtime 2 hours 15 minutes including interval.