When Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe came of big-screen age earlier this year in the cinematic adaptation of Susan Hill's spookiest of novels, one feared that its gothic gloss might suck the life out of the late Stephen Mallatratt's stage version.
After more than two decades in the West End and 10 national tours, and judging by this latest encounter, Robin Herford's still spine-tingling production isn't ready to lie down just yet.
Mallatratt's play finds lawyer Arthur Kipps hiring an actor to role-play events from years before in an attempt to exorcise ghosts that have haunted him since. These involve a young Kipps being packed off to a desolate country house to oversee a dead woman's affairs, only to have the eponymous woman transform his life. As a dense yarn of illegitimacy, accidental death and revenge from the grave is unveiled, the shocks pile on aplenty for Kipps, whether played by Julian Forsyth or by Antony Eden's actor.
This may sound terribly meta, but it is also a masterclass in suspending disbelief.
As has already been noted on these pages, fans of immersive theatre who think they've discovered the holy grail in art-house fringe spaces elsewhere could learn much from The Woman in Black. The box of tricks used in both are essentially the same, and go back a lot further.
Yet there's more going on here than meets eye. As Audrone Koc's woman enacts her revenge on the world, it's as if she's calling to account the moral hypocrisy of a society that robbed her of her child. As long as audiences enjoy being terrified, chances are she'll be cursing them for several years to come.
HHHH
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article