The Woman In Black (Theatre Royal) ★★★½

Adapted by Stephen Mallatratt. Based on the novel by Susan Hill. Theatre Royal Sydney. Till 17 Aug 2024.

Cheap thrills and jump scares might not be the most sophisticated of theatrical outings, but there’s no denying the fun to be had from watching a ghost story in a packed theatre, and The Woman in Black delivers the frights as advertised. 

I won’t venture into the mechanics of the plot for fear of spoilers, but you can read the wiki or watch the film, if you really want to know. Suffice to say, a young lawyer is sent to the estate of a deceased old lady whose house may very well be haunted by a woman, wearing black.

But this isn’t a straight presentation of a creepy story, the premise, and ultimately the hook of the play is that our narrator, Arthur Kipps (played in his older years by John Waters) wants to tell the story of an horrific incident he experienced in his youth as a way to exorcise the memories. He has enlisted the help of a young actor (Daniel MacPherson) for tips on public speaking, whose enthusiasm for the story-within-the-story brings it to life. 

Mallatratt’s adaptation lures the audience in with a celebration of pure theatrics. We are invited to imagine props, scene changes and character and once the show has our imaginations engaged, it uses them to scare the bejesus out of us. The two leads slip between multiple roles (MacPherson plays the young Kipps in the retelling, while Waters plays, well, just about everyone else). We jump from reality into memory with a sharp change of the lighting. It’s a smart and theatrically literate presentation that uses the trickery of the stage, more than any modern technology, to give us the willies… and it’s better for it.

Director Robin Herford amplifies moments of comedy to perfectly accent the tension. Like watching any good horror film with an audience the first reaction is to scream, quickly followed by raucous laughter. Herford and Mallatratt deploy moments of silliness into the mix to disarm us, and once disarmed we are vulnerable.

MacPherson’s Actor has a youthful excitability and warm enthusiasm about him that makes him instantly likeable. His gentle nature with the elderly and nervous Kipps is vital in gaining the audience’s sympathy. When he becomes the younger Kipps, there is a British stoicism to his behaviour  – yes, he has encountered a ghost, but he won’t let that stop him from doing his paperwork! 

But this is John Waters’ night. Playing a variety of roles, he is constantly called upon to change his performance on a dime, and does so wonderfully. Despite often being shoved to the side of the stage with little to do other than narrate, his sonorous voice and empathic style draw you in.

I’ve a soft spot for The Woman in Black. It knows what it is and doesn’t stray from the basic premise. This is a ghost story, designed to give you chills in the telling just like The Turn of the Screw. There are no great morals (in fact it rests on some rather nasty old tropes), no lessons to be learned, this is entertainment, pure and simple. Its historically long run in London, 30+ years, may have more to do with the size of the tiny Fortune Theatre and discounted tickets, than the actual play itself, but it is nonetheless a perfectly fun, popcorn piece of theatre.