A Ghost Story/Play-The Woman In Black=SCARY !!

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GhoStory Guru: The Woman in Black—A Ghost Play, adapted by Stephen Mallatratt from the book by Susan Hill

MAR 1

Posted by Kristi Petersen Schoonover

With the recent release of the new film, The Woman in Black has been much talked about. The original Hill is certainly a classic, as it deserves to be. But it’s also a play, and if you love ghost stories and haven’t read it, this piece is certainly worth reading—and owning.

I spent many years in community theatre both as an actress and stagehand, so for me, reading plays isn’t difficult. Reading plays and feeling true emotion while doing it, however, sometimes can be—stage directions in the script can provide a disruption in the flow of the work. Although the descriptive passages spoken by the actors in The Woman in Black certainly do their part in sending chills up the spine, in this case, it’s the stage directions that make this thing scary.

Consider, for example: “Kipps moves inside. A light illuminates the door, and as we look, we see it slowly open. The light is outside the door, but not inside. Kipps approaches in fear and caution, then shines his torch inside. The only light comes from this torch, and we see by it that the rocking chair is in motion—rocking backwards and forwards apparently of its own volition—and it is this that we have heard, echoing on the floor boards. As he shines the torch on it, it rocks less and less until it stops.”[1]

Or this: “Kipps switches on the lights as: The Woman in Black leaves the stage—momentarily glimpsed.”[2]

In addition: as we all know, the sense of sound is very important in a ghost story. What’s nice about reading this play is the sounds you’re supposed to hear are sparingly rendered: “They trot on, the silence broken by nothing but the sound of the pony, and occasional, harsh, weird cries from birds.”[3]; “There is the sound effect of Kipps running, the thud of his footsteps, the panting of his breath.”[4]

The Woman in Black—A Ghost Play succeeds as a straight read because the simply-described desired movements of the actors create an easy image in the reader’s mind—images that will, more than likely, haunt the reader for quite awhile.

The Woman in Black—A Ghost Play (in fact, the edition I own) is available at Amazon here:http://amzn.com/0573040192

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[1] Stephen Mallatratt, adapted from the book by Susan Hill, The Woman in Black—A Ghost Play, (New York: Samuel French—London, 1998), 40.

[2] Ibid., 41.

[3] Ibid., 25.

[4] Ibid., 27.

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 Kristi Petersen Schoonover

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About Kristi Petersen Schoonover

A ghost story writer who still sleeps with the lights on, Kristi Petersen Schoonover’s fiction has appeared in countless magazines and anthologies. She has received three Norman Mailer Writers Colony Residencies, is editor for Read Short Fiction, and hosts the Scary Scribes podcast for Paranormal, Eh? Radio Network in Canada. Her work Skeletons in the Swimmin’ Hole is a collection of ghost stories set in Disney Parks; her horror novel, Bad Apple, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She’s also a member of the New England Horror Writers Association. More info: www.kristipetersenschoonover.com

View all posts by Kristi Petersen Schoonover »

Posted on March 1, 2012, in GhoStory Guru and tagged Ghost Stories, Stephen Mallatratt, story analysis,Susan Hill, The Woman in Black, The Woman in Black play. Bookmark the permalink. Leave a Comment.

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THE WOMAN IN BLACK
A Ghost Playby Stephen Mallatratt
based on the novel by Susan Hill
directed by James J. Christy

Oct. 29 – Nov. 24, 2013

“A Brilliantly Effective Spine-Chiller”
 -The Guardian

A haunting ghost story, set in an English countryside. Two actors play multiple roles in this spine-tingling theatrical event. The story of an old English lawyer trying to make sense of a frightening event from his past, The Woman in Black will have you on the edge of your seat from the moment the lights go down. Come see why this classic ghost story has become the second-longest running show in London history.

Running time: Two hours, including one intermission

Read the rave Inquirer review: "Prepare to be scared"

 

Fog and haze effects are used in this production.

← “The Woman in Black” – insights from director James J. Christy

The Elements of Ghostly Style

Posted on October 28, 2013by act2playouse

by Bill D’Agostino, production dramaturg

To prepare for writing her novella, The Woman in Black,Susan Hill read “a lot of ghost stories to see if I could find common elements,” she told Act II Playhouse in a recent e-mail.

The novelist made a list of the ingredients she discovered, among them:

• A reason for the ghost to be haunting the place;

• A narrator who doesn’t believe in ghosts; and

• A mixture of the familiar, ordinary and everyday – but distorted or made strange.

The Woman in Black was published in 1983, but it wasn’t until it was turned into  a play in 1987 by the late Stephen Mallatratt that it gained fame. Mallatratt was looking for something to adapt as a Christmas show for a theatre in Scarborough, where he was then writer-in-residence. He read Hill’s novella, and had the brilliant idea of transforming it into a play-within-a-play for two actors.

“I thought he was mad,” Hill recalled. “I was wrong.”

Hill had no input on the adaptation “other than to encourage.”  The play is, 25 years later, still running on the West End, making it the second-longest running show in London history (after The Mousetrap). Last year, the novella was turned into a successful movie, starring Daniel Radcliffe (best known for playing Harry Potter).

When asked what she thinks accounts for the story’s continued success, Hill demurred.  “I wish I knew and I`d bottle it,” she wrote. “Dramatic tension and atmosphere I think are key.”

Hill has a new novella, Printer’s Devil Yard, that was just published on Oct. 17. The supernatural is still haunting her.

“It’s a ghost story set in the old Fleet Street area of London – more than that, I won’t say.”

The Woman in Black plays at Act II Playhouse in Ambler from Oct. 29-Nov. 24, 2013. For tickets and information, visit http://www.act2.org or call 215-654-0200.

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“The Woman in Black” – insights from director James J. Christy

Posted on October 4, 2013by act2playouse

“I’ve never done a ghost story before. It’s an intriguing form because it plays with latent fears in our imagination and gives us the opportunity to explore what these unknown things are that scare us in our nights and in our nightmares, but knowing that we’re going to get off free because it’s just a story.”

“The book (by Susan Hill) is quite beautifully written. It’s got a lovely style that is a little late-19^th century English, but relatively easy to read. She has descriptions of the landscape that are truly gorgeous and mysterious. It’s this marsh-like landscape that is foggy and beautiful. And then there’s this house standing out way out the other side of the water that is separated by a causeway that gets covered with water. So the whole thing is very beautiful and mysterious, but in a weird/scary/empty/wet/marshy kind of way. So it becomes very intriguing to your imagination.”

“One of the things I want to explore in the play is the hero’s attraction to that place. He goes to it just as to a job but something gets him about the place.  Even though he stays to do his job, it seems as if he wants to get to the heart of the thing. The idea of how we get into a fantasy of fear through a kind of attraction/repulsion really interests me a great deal. And there’s a lot of that in the piece.”

“This is an angry ghost. This one feels like a pagan ghost who is going to do what she needs to do. She was done a terrible wrong; a terrible, terrible thing has been done to her. But she’s going to extract the maximum vengeance. It seems that her appetite for vengeance is insatiable. That feels like the Furies … once you have let a certain amount of energy out of the bag, it’s never going to give up.

“Her anger has become a part of the place’s ecology. If you live in that area, if you contact that area, her spirit will be there. And then if you see her, you’ve got problems.”