The Woman in Black (play)
Encyclopedia
The Woman in Black is a 1987 stage play, adapted by Stephen Mallatratt
. The play is based on the book of the same name
, which was written in 1983 by Susan Hill
. It is notable for only having two actors perform the whole play. It was first performed at the Stephen Joseph Theatre
in Scarborough, in 1987. The production reached London's West End
on 5 June 1989, and is still being performed there, becoming the second longest running play in the history of the West End, after The Mousetrap
. Robin Herford has been director ever since the very first performance in London.
, as he journeys to the small market town
of Crythin Gifford to attend the funeral
of a client, Mrs Alice Drablow. At the funeral, he sees a young woman with a wasted face, dressed all in black, standing in the churchyard.
Bemused by the villagers' reluctance to speak of the woman in black, Arthur goes to Eel Marsh House, Mrs Drablow's former abode, an old building in the middle of a marsh
, cut off at high tide. Sorting through Mrs Drablow's papers, he finds a box of letters, and ultimately discovers the dreadful secret of the Woman in Black – to his own terrible cost.
theatre, with an old Arthur Kipps reading from a manuscript of his story. A young actor
, whom he hired to help him, enters and berates him for his poor delivery. After a much heated debate, they decide to perform the story, with the Actor playing a younger Kipps, and Kipps himself playing all the other characters he met, as well as narrating the play. When they run through the play, however, things begin to go terribly wrong...
Kipps (played by the Actor) learns of the death of an elderly and reclusive widow Mrs Drablow, and travels up to Crythin Gifford to sort through her private papers. On the train
, he meets a local landowner, Mr Samuel Daily (played, like the other characters, by the real Arthur Kipps), who tells him a little about Mrs Drablow. Upon their arrival at Crythin, Mr Daily drops Arthur off at the local inn, where he is to stay the night.
The next morning, Arthur meets with a local man enlisted to help him with the business, Mr Horatio Jerome. They go to Mrs Drablow's funeral together, where Arthur first sees the woman in black. At first feeling sorry for the young woman, who was apparently suffering from some dreadful wasting disease, he asks Mr Jerome who she was. Mr Jerome suddenly turns pale and, terrified, hurries Arthur away from the church, saying there has been no woman there.
Upon their return to the inn, Mr Jerome seems to have recovered, and says that a local man would arrive presently to escort Arthur to Mrs Drablow's house.
The local man, a villager named Keckwick, arrives a few moments later, driving, much to Arthur's delight, an old-fashioned pony and trap. Keckwick drives Arthur out to the house, and Arthur stays for the day, sorting through Mrs Drablow's papers, and amazed to find out how many there are. He also finds an old cemetery outside the house, where he again encounters the Woman in Black. Later that day, a thick fog settles on the marsh, cutting Arthur off from the mainland
. (This effect was achieved using theatrical fog.) He decides to try to walk back across the causeway, and sets off into the fog. Only a few yards onto the causeway, however, Arthur realises that he is lost, and is forced to retrace his steps back to Eel Marsh House. Before he gets there, however, he hears the sound of a pony and trap on the causeway. Assuming that it is Keckwick coming after all, he goes back into the fog. However, it soon becomes apparent that the pony and trap is in trouble, as he hears it drive out onto the marsh. Helpless, Arthur listens as the pony and trap gets stuck in the quicksand
, and all its occupants, including a young child, are drowned. Arthur returns to the house in a state of shock. Whilst he is exploring the house, he discovers a locked door, which, due to his state of heightened emotion, causes him some distress when he is unable to open it. He is further amazed when Keckwick returns a few hours later.
Act I ends with a monologue
from Arthur, who says that he is sure, although he does not know how, that the sound he heard was not Keckwick, nor any living thing, but that he has encountered things that are dead.
, Spider, as a companion. (The "dog" is, like many other things in the play, imaginary.)
Returning to Eel Marsh House, Arthur finds what is inside a locked room, a child's nursery
, abandoned but in perfect condition. Later that night, he hears a knocking sound in the nursery and he and the dog, Spider, go up to find out what it is. Inside the nursery, which has now been ransacked, and in one of the play's most iconic scenes, Arthur sees an empty rocking chair
, rocking back and forth as if somebody had just left it, although nobody passed him. In his nervous fear, Arthur returns to his bedroom.
The next day, Arthur finds a correspondence from almost sixty years ago, between Mrs Drablow and a mysterious woman who is apparently her sister, which tells of tragic events. The woman, named as Jennet Humfrye, was unmarried and with child, and as such was sent away by her family. A son
was born to her in Scotland
, but pressure was immediately exerted on her to give him up for adoption
. At first refusing vehemently saying she would die first, Jennet ultimately gives in and sends the child into the care of Mrs Drablow and her husband.
However, Jennet, unable to bear being parted from her son, returns to Crythin Gifford after a time, and stays with her sister. She is allowed to see her son, provided that she never reveals her true relationship to him. The child, however, becomes more and more attached to the woman who, although he doesn't know it, is his mother. Jennet plans to run away with him, but before she can manage it, a tragic event occurs.
The child goes out onto the marsh one day with his nursemaid and dog, riding a pony and trap. A fog suddenly descends upon the marsh, and, lost in the thick mist, they ride out blindly onto the marsh. Getting stuck in the quicksand, the child, the nursemaid
and their driver (Keckwick's father) are all drowned. Jennet, driven mad by her grief, contracts a terrible wasting disease, and several years later, dies. Immediately after her death, however, she returns as the Woman in Black.
Having found out about the Woman, Arthur suddenly becomes subject to a series of terrifying events in Eel Marsh House, and eventually, collapses on the marsh when trying to rescue Spider, to be found and taken back to Crythin by Sam Daily, who assures him that Spider is all right. He tells Arthur the story of the Woman, and that many of the people he has met during his journey (Jerome, Keckwick and Daily himself) have all lost a child after seeing her.
Kipps, assuming his experience to be over, returns to London and marries his fiancee, Stella. Out at a country fair one day, Stella and their baby son Joseph go for a ride on a pony and trap. Arthur, waiting at the stall, looks around to see the Woman in Black. The Woman jumps out in front of the pony and trap that Stella and Joseph are riding, and the pony careers out of control, crashing into a tree and killing Joseph, and, ultimately, Stella too. (This scene is done entirely with recorded sound and narration.)
Having come to the end of their rehearsal, Kipps and the Actor, out of character, sit down to rest. Kipps wonders if performing the play to his family will exorcise
his ghost
.
A twist is added at the end of the play when the Actor asks Kipps who the actress playing the Woman was. Kipps, suddenly turning pale, looks at the Actor in horror. Mirroring the scene with Mr Jerome, Kipps says, terrified, "I did not see a young woman", implying that the Woman in Black had really been in the theatre, and that she had returned because Kipps was meddling in her affairs once again. The play ends with the rhythmic knocking of the rocking chair as the lights fade to a blackout, with a lingering image of the Woman in Black's face visible behind the gauze for a few seconds.
Current London Cast
Creative Team
Stephen Mallatratt
Stephen Mallatratt was an English playwright and television screenwriter. He is best known for his television work on the ITV series Coronation Street, The Forsyte Saga and Island at War , and for his stage adaptation of the novel The Woman in Black...
. The play is based on the book of the same name
The Woman in Black
The Woman in Black is a 1983 thriller fiction novel by Susan Hill about a menacing spectre that haunts a small English town.It was adapted into a stage play by Stephen Mallatratt...
, which was written in 1983 by Susan Hill
Susan Hill
Susan Hill is an English author of fiction and non-fiction works. Her novels include The Woman in Black, The Mist in the Mirror and I'm the King of the Castle for which she received the Somerset Maugham Award in 1971....
. It is notable for only having two actors perform the whole play. It was first performed at the Stephen Joseph Theatre
Stephen Joseph Theatre
The Stephen Joseph Theatre is a theatre in the round in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England that was founded by Stephen Joseph and was the first theatre in the round in Britain....
in Scarborough, in 1987. The production reached London's West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
on 5 June 1989, and is still being performed there, becoming the second longest running play in the history of the West End, after The Mousetrap
The Mousetrap
The Mousetrap is a murder mystery play by Agatha Christie. The Mousetrap opened in the West End of London in 1952, and has been running continuously since then. It has the longest initial run of any play in history, with over 24,500 performances so far. It is the longest running show of the modern...
. Robin Herford has been director ever since the very first performance in London.
Book synopsis
The book follows the story of Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitorSolicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
, as he journeys to the small market town
Market town
Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...
of Crythin Gifford to attend the funeral
Funeral
A funeral is a ceremony for celebrating, sanctifying, or remembering the life of a person who has died. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from interment itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor...
of a client, Mrs Alice Drablow. At the funeral, he sees a young woman with a wasted face, dressed all in black, standing in the churchyard.
Bemused by the villagers' reluctance to speak of the woman in black, Arthur goes to Eel Marsh House, Mrs Drablow's former abode, an old building in the middle of a marsh
Marsh
In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland that is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, other herbaceous plants, and moss....
, cut off at high tide. Sorting through Mrs Drablow's papers, he finds a box of letters, and ultimately discovers the dreadful secret of the Woman in Black – to his own terrible cost.
Plot summary
- The plot remains faithful to Hill's book, but adds an extra dimension of a play within a play.
Act I
The play opens in an empty VictorianVictorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
theatre, with an old Arthur Kipps reading from a manuscript of his story. A young actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, whom he hired to help him, enters and berates him for his poor delivery. After a much heated debate, they decide to perform the story, with the Actor playing a younger Kipps, and Kipps himself playing all the other characters he met, as well as narrating the play. When they run through the play, however, things begin to go terribly wrong...
Kipps (played by the Actor) learns of the death of an elderly and reclusive widow Mrs Drablow, and travels up to Crythin Gifford to sort through her private papers. On the train
Train
A train is a connected series of vehicles for rail transport that move along a track to transport cargo or passengers from one place to another place. The track usually consists of two rails, but might also be a monorail or maglev guideway.Propulsion for the train is provided by a separate...
, he meets a local landowner, Mr Samuel Daily (played, like the other characters, by the real Arthur Kipps), who tells him a little about Mrs Drablow. Upon their arrival at Crythin, Mr Daily drops Arthur off at the local inn, where he is to stay the night.
The next morning, Arthur meets with a local man enlisted to help him with the business, Mr Horatio Jerome. They go to Mrs Drablow's funeral together, where Arthur first sees the woman in black. At first feeling sorry for the young woman, who was apparently suffering from some dreadful wasting disease, he asks Mr Jerome who she was. Mr Jerome suddenly turns pale and, terrified, hurries Arthur away from the church, saying there has been no woman there.
Upon their return to the inn, Mr Jerome seems to have recovered, and says that a local man would arrive presently to escort Arthur to Mrs Drablow's house.
The local man, a villager named Keckwick, arrives a few moments later, driving, much to Arthur's delight, an old-fashioned pony and trap. Keckwick drives Arthur out to the house, and Arthur stays for the day, sorting through Mrs Drablow's papers, and amazed to find out how many there are. He also finds an old cemetery outside the house, where he again encounters the Woman in Black. Later that day, a thick fog settles on the marsh, cutting Arthur off from the mainland
Mainland
Mainland is a name given to a large landmass in a region , or to the largest of a group of islands in an archipelago. Sometimes its residents are called "Mainlanders"...
. (This effect was achieved using theatrical fog.) He decides to try to walk back across the causeway, and sets off into the fog. Only a few yards onto the causeway, however, Arthur realises that he is lost, and is forced to retrace his steps back to Eel Marsh House. Before he gets there, however, he hears the sound of a pony and trap on the causeway. Assuming that it is Keckwick coming after all, he goes back into the fog. However, it soon becomes apparent that the pony and trap is in trouble, as he hears it drive out onto the marsh. Helpless, Arthur listens as the pony and trap gets stuck in the quicksand
Quicksand
Quicksand is a colloid hydrogel consisting of fine granular matter , clay, and water.Water circulation underground can focus in an area with the optimal mixture of fine sands and other materials such as clay. The water moves up and then down slowly in a convection-like manner throughout a column...
, and all its occupants, including a young child, are drowned. Arthur returns to the house in a state of shock. Whilst he is exploring the house, he discovers a locked door, which, due to his state of heightened emotion, causes him some distress when he is unable to open it. He is further amazed when Keckwick returns a few hours later.
Act I ends with a monologue
Monologue
In theatre, a monologue is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media...
from Arthur, who says that he is sure, although he does not know how, that the sound he heard was not Keckwick, nor any living thing, but that he has encountered things that are dead.
Act II
Back in Crythin Gifford, Arthur seeks the help of Mr Jerome, and asks if he would accompany him back to Eel Marsh House or send him someone to help. Mr Jerome becomes once again profoundly terrified, and practically throws Arthur out of his office, saying nobody in the village would accompany him to the house. Arthur later meets Sam Daily, and tells him of his day at Eel Marsh House. Sam, concerned, invites Arthur to his house, where he gives Arthur his dogDog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
, Spider, as a companion. (The "dog" is, like many other things in the play, imaginary.)
Returning to Eel Marsh House, Arthur finds what is inside a locked room, a child's nursery
Nursery (room)
A nursery is usually, in American connotations, a bedroom within a house or other dwelling set aside for an infant or toddler. A typical nursery would contain a crib , a table or platform for the purpose of changing diapers , as well as various items required for the care of the child...
, abandoned but in perfect condition. Later that night, he hears a knocking sound in the nursery and he and the dog, Spider, go up to find out what it is. Inside the nursery, which has now been ransacked, and in one of the play's most iconic scenes, Arthur sees an empty rocking chair
Rocking chair
A rocking chair or rocker is a type of chair with two curved bands of wood attached to the bottom of the legs . The chair contacts with the floor at only two points, giving the occupant the ability to rock back and forth by shifting his/her weight or pushing lightly with his/her feet...
, rocking back and forth as if somebody had just left it, although nobody passed him. In his nervous fear, Arthur returns to his bedroom.
The next day, Arthur finds a correspondence from almost sixty years ago, between Mrs Drablow and a mysterious woman who is apparently her sister, which tells of tragic events. The woman, named as Jennet Humfrye, was unmarried and with child, and as such was sent away by her family. A son
Son
A son is a male offspring; a boy or man in relation to his parents. The female analogue is a daughter.-Social issues regarding sons:In pre-industrial societies and some current countries with agriculture-based economies, a higher value was, and still is, assigned to sons rather than daughters,...
was born to her in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, but pressure was immediately exerted on her to give him up for adoption
Adoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
. At first refusing vehemently saying she would die first, Jennet ultimately gives in and sends the child into the care of Mrs Drablow and her husband.
However, Jennet, unable to bear being parted from her son, returns to Crythin Gifford after a time, and stays with her sister. She is allowed to see her son, provided that she never reveals her true relationship to him. The child, however, becomes more and more attached to the woman who, although he doesn't know it, is his mother. Jennet plans to run away with him, but before she can manage it, a tragic event occurs.
The child goes out onto the marsh one day with his nursemaid and dog, riding a pony and trap. A fog suddenly descends upon the marsh, and, lost in the thick mist, they ride out blindly onto the marsh. Getting stuck in the quicksand, the child, the nursemaid
Nursemaid
A nursemaid or nursery maid, is mostly a historical term of employment for a female servant in an elite household. In the 21st century, the position is largely defunct, owing to the relatively small number of households who maintain large staffs with the traditional hierarchy.The nursery maid...
and their driver (Keckwick's father) are all drowned. Jennet, driven mad by her grief, contracts a terrible wasting disease, and several years later, dies. Immediately after her death, however, she returns as the Woman in Black.
Having found out about the Woman, Arthur suddenly becomes subject to a series of terrifying events in Eel Marsh House, and eventually, collapses on the marsh when trying to rescue Spider, to be found and taken back to Crythin by Sam Daily, who assures him that Spider is all right. He tells Arthur the story of the Woman, and that many of the people he has met during his journey (Jerome, Keckwick and Daily himself) have all lost a child after seeing her.
Kipps, assuming his experience to be over, returns to London and marries his fiancee, Stella. Out at a country fair one day, Stella and their baby son Joseph go for a ride on a pony and trap. Arthur, waiting at the stall, looks around to see the Woman in Black. The Woman jumps out in front of the pony and trap that Stella and Joseph are riding, and the pony careers out of control, crashing into a tree and killing Joseph, and, ultimately, Stella too. (This scene is done entirely with recorded sound and narration.)
Having come to the end of their rehearsal, Kipps and the Actor, out of character, sit down to rest. Kipps wonders if performing the play to his family will exorcise
Exorcism
Exorcism is the religious practice of evicting demons or other spiritual entities from a person or place which they are believed to have possessed...
his ghost
Ghost
In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...
.
A twist is added at the end of the play when the Actor asks Kipps who the actress playing the Woman was. Kipps, suddenly turning pale, looks at the Actor in horror. Mirroring the scene with Mr Jerome, Kipps says, terrified, "I did not see a young woman", implying that the Woman in Black had really been in the theatre, and that she had returned because Kipps was meddling in her affairs once again. The play ends with the rhythmic knocking of the rocking chair as the lights fade to a blackout, with a lingering image of the Woman in Black's face visible behind the gauze for a few seconds.
Cast & Creative
Original London Cast - 1989- Charles KayCharles KayCharles Kay is an English actor.Kay was born in Coventry, West Midlands, the son of Frances and Charles Beckingham Piff....
as Arthur Kipps - John DuttineJohn DuttineJohn Arthur Duttine is an English actor noted for his roles on stage, films and television. He is well known for his role as Sgt George Miller in Heartbeat....
as The Actor
Current London Cast
- David Acton as Arthur Kipps
- Ben Deery as The Actor
- Richard FranklinRichard FranklinRichard Franklin is a British actor.He has had various roles in different television programmes including Crossroads and Emmerdale Farm...
as Understudy: Arthur Kipps - Tom Warner as Understudy: The Actor
Creative Team
- Stephen MallatrattStephen MallatrattStephen Mallatratt was an English playwright and television screenwriter. He is best known for his television work on the ITV series Coronation Street, The Forsyte Saga and Island at War , and for his stage adaptation of the novel The Woman in Black...
- Playwright - Michael Holt - Set Designer
- Kevin Sleep - Lighting Designer
- Susan Hill - Author of original book
- Robin Herford - Director
- PW Productions - Producer