Jordan Wright
December 9, 2019
Attention all Brits and Anglophiles! The festive tradition of vying for the evilest stories during the Christmas season is very much intact. Based on Susan Hull’s 1983 neo-Gothic novel came the play, the second-longest running production in London’s West End. It puts us in mind of Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol” featuring the spooky ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Future. This tale of “truth being quite other”, as it’s described, attempts to be a story of haunting and fear. And the premise that, “It must be told,” becomes the basis for delivering this tale.
Daniel Easton, left, and Robert Goodale star in “The Woman in Black” at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. Photo credit Tristram Kenton
In this atmospherically set two-hander, promoted as “spine-tingling”, the actors trade parts using different accents, subtle costume changes, and a few props, counting on the audience’s imagination to envision the characters’ motives and identities, rather than seeing it all played out. Eerie sound effects – howling winds, thudding steps, screams, and things that go bump in the night – are the raison d’être for attempting to terrorize the audience.
In it, scenes toggle back and forth between an old man’s spooky story and a young solicitor (who also acts as acting coach to the old man) with the two men trading roles and adopting new ones at the drop of a bowler hat. I must confess I found it rather sillier, and utterly predictable, than scary, though several audience members did squeal a few times.
Robert Goodale, left, and Daniel Easton in “The Woman in Black.” Photo credit Tristram Kenton
It’s easy to intuit the plot as well as the outcome when the described setting is the dark salt marshes surrounding an isolated house in England’s barren countryside. Factor in the Nine Lives Bridge that sinks with the tides, further enisling the property and add in a fog-filled graveyard that features prominently as a location for a visiting ghost. I’m not entirely certain there weren’t baying hounds, but there could have been, so seamlessly would they have figured into this well-acted but clichéd story.
Ah well, you can’t win them all – ghosts notwithstanding.
Adapted by Stephen Mallatratt and directed by Robin Herford. Set and Costume Design by Michael Holt, Lighting Design by Kevin Sleep. Starring Robert Goodale as Arthur Kipps and Daniel Easton as The Actor.
Through December 22nd at the Michael R. Klein Theatre (formerly known as the Lansburgh Theatre) at 450 7th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20007. For tickets and information visit www.ShakespeareTheatre.org/events or call the box office at 202.547.1122.