Susan Hill’s famed ghost story The Woman In Black is in Birmingham this week and we got a first look at it on opening night.
The show was a long-running hit in London’s West End and is on a UK tour that stops off at The Alexandra theatre until Saturday(January 31).
It’s ideal timing for schools and parents as the renowned novel is a current text on the GCSE curriculum for this year, so there were many schoolchildren in the audience on first night.
Stephen Mallatratt’s adaptation of Susan Hill’s best-selling novel tells the story of a lawyer obsessed with a curse, which he believes has been cast over his family by the spectre of a ‘Woman in Black’.
He engages a young actor in an empty theatre to help him tell his story in a bid to exorcise the fear. As they start to act out the story, it takes the audience back to how it all began and his experiences with the mysterious figure.
It’s a wonderfully chilling and cleverly crafted piece of theatre with a small fine cast of mainly two actors. John Mackay is extraordinary as he takes on a series of roles with varying accents and has strong support from Daniel Burke as The Actor.
It builds tension very slowly in the first act and it’s not until after the interval that the tempo reaches a crescendo with plenty of jump scares.
Despite minimal staging, there’s a deft play with lighting, sound effects and shadows to bring this creepy gothic Victorian tale to life. It even brought screams from some in the crowd at key chilling moments.
It had an incredible 33-year run at the Fortune Theatre in London and now Birmingham can see why it was such a hit with ghost story fans.
Perfect for a cold, dark January night, it will chill you to the bone.
Tickets cost from £15 from The Alexandra website here. Catch The Woman In Black until Saturday January 31 in Birmingham city centre at The Alexandra.