The Woman in Black

Before classes started this summer, three friends and I went to see The Woman in Black at the Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden. It’s a West End commercial play that has been continuously running for 27 years, meaning it has not closed since its premiere in 1989. I wanted to see it because it was so successful and my friend who recently studied abroad in Europe said it was one of the best performances she had ever seen. The Fortune Theatre itself is small (I think the orchestra level had about a dozen rows) which works for this style of show.,

The plot takes a play-within-a-play format. There are only two credited actors in the entire production. They are both men, which disappointed me at first. Malcolm James, who played the older Arthur Kipps, had a delightful range and ability to switch between characters. Matt Connor, who portrayed The Actor, was very precise in his delivery. The first half of the first act felt a little slow, but it then got very interesting and we were on the edge of our seats for the entire second act.

I was really impressed with the lighting for the play. It is a thriller, and I was very impressed with how completely dark they were able to make the stage. Most shows I’ve seen, especially in theaters as small as that, have enough light coming from other sources that you can still see movement on stage during a blackout, but for this show it was completely dark.

Some things I’m curious about: Has anything changed since the show began running in 1989? I imagine they would update some of the technology, but has any of the blocking changed?