Special “$5 Night” on Thurs, Oct 26^th at 8 pm
“Halloween Eve” performance Oct 30^th at 8 pm

While there is no mature language or subject matter, the play may frighten very young audience members. We recommend this production for adults, and for children ages 10 and above.

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Photos by Darcy Lythgoe

A play that has captivated audiences in London’s West End for more than 16 years is about to make Orange County a little uneasy: The Woman in Black, a chilling, classic ghost story, plays throughout the month of October – just in time for Halloween.

Not a traditional horror story, Stephen Mallatratt's adaptation of Susan Hill's bestselling book has been linked to the darker works of Charles Dickens, M.R. James, Henry James, and Edith Wharton. A combination of mystery and horror, with a frightening final twist, it is not a book to be read late at night, nor a play to see alone.

In the depths of an empty theatre, one man's desire to rid himself of a terrifying curse leads him to reveal a horrific story. In an attempt exorcise the spirit of the woman in black, he hires a young actor to assist him in telling his tale. The plan begins innocently enough, but as they descend deeper into the story, they find themselves caught in a world of eerie marshes, mysterious manors, ancient graveyards and howling winds. As the border between reality and fantasy blurs, the terror starts … and the flesh begins to creep.

"This is the most brilliantly effective spine chiller
you will ever encounter. If you haven't seen this
show yet, you are missing a treat."
                           - London Daily Telegraph

"Of all the horror stories that have appeared on
stage — or, for that matter, on film – none has kept
audience members on the edge of their seats quite
like The Woman In Black."
                           - Star-Telegram

The play, adapted by British actor/writer Stephen
Mallatratt from the 1984 novel by Susan Hill, was
first produced by a small theatre company in
Scarborough, where Mallatratt was in residence. The
production transferred to London’s West End in 1989, and
is still playing there, more than sixteen years later – a
witness to its spooky appeal.

This intimate, two-man production is directed by Glendele Way-Agle and features Ellis LaVere Davis (Careless Love) and Jason Lythgoe (The Threepenny Opera, Thrill Me).

“It’s a perfect choice for Halloween,” says Associate Artistic Director Jeremy Gable, “The play doesn’t rely on butcher knives and blood packets to terrify it’s audience, rather it draws on the spirit of a good, old-fashioned ghost story – as those that might be told around a campfire.”

And the production may have summoned some demons of its own. “It’s been an interesting rehearsal process,” explains Way-Agle, “Perhaps it’s just the mindset that you get in when working on a project like this, but we’ve had some strange occurrences at the  theater in the last few weeks.

“There’s a fluorescent work light, for example, that operates properly on a day-to-day basis … but when we rehearse this play, it seems to react. If the actors rehearse a scene that takes place in Eel Marsh House, the light flickers out and the set goes dark. The moment the actors ‘leave’ the house, the light snaps back on as if on cue. It’s eerie.”

Kimberly K. Mitchell serves as stage manager for The Woman In Black. Joy Bice designs lights. Set design is by Darcy Lythgoe. Ellis LaVere Davis designs sound. Darcy Lythgoe designs costumes. Amber Scott and Darcy Lythgoe serve as production assistants.

Don't miss The Woman in Black ... it's
a perfectly spooky treat for Halloween.
Seats are selling out quickly. CLICK HERE
to reserve yours now!

Theater: 'The Woman in Black'

Review: Hunger Artists' staging salutes world of theater.

Everyone loves a good ghost story, but what makes Stephen Mallatratt's 1989 thriller "The Woman in Black" work is the way it turns some of the genre's conventions on their ear.

Based on Susan Hill's bestseller, Mallatratt's script requires just two actors to enact a story populated by at least a dozen characters. In doing so, the adaptation becomes as much a salute to the world of theater and the intense creativity that's poured into every stage production as it is a chilling tale of insanity, hauntings and a curse that afflicts the living.

Directed by Glendele Way-Agle, Hunger Artists Theatre Company's new staging works at both levels, with the tandem of Ellis LaVere Davis and Jason Lythgoe bringing grace and subtlety to the story's inherent scares and shocks.

Things begin innocently enough when Arthur Kipps (Davis), a lawyer, approaches an actor (Lythgoe) to assist him in acting out on stage a script he has written. Not a man of the theater himself, Kipps winds up being coached by the actor (the character is nameless).

Kipps' desperation in bringing his story to life becomes apparent when he explains that the tale came from his own past. For years, he has tried to exorcise a horrific curse brought on by the spirit of a mysterious woman in black. For him, reliving the events that led up to the present are the only way to expunge the dark memories haunting him.

To get Kipps' tale rolling, the actor takes the role of Kipps as a younger man while training Kipps in the finer points of acting. In effect acting as both star and director, the actor assigns all of the supporting roles to Kipps.

Gradually, both men become immersed in the world Kipps inhabited as a younger man – a world straight out of Dickens, Henry James and Edith Wharton. While it's true that many of the story elements of "Woman in Black" – the creepy old mansion, the mist-shrouded salt marshes, the tight-lipped townspeople, the ancient burial grounds – have long since become clichéd, Mallatratt weaves them together in such a convincing way that we're suitably gripped for the duration.

His gimmick of, in effect, creating a play within the play certainly goes a long way too. By reducing the raft of characters to a pair of actors while minimizing the need for sets, costumes and special effects, the script is morphed into the kind of "theater of the mind" that has always been the territory of radio, activating and exploiting our imaginations.

As responsible for the script's power in this production is Way-Agle's adroit staging, which cannily uses every corner of the Hunger Artists venue to full advantage while adding a new, surprise element. Darcy Lythgoe's costumes fix the action in an earlier time and her scene design creates a creepy cemetery and a child's playroom within the nearly empty yet glitzy theater where the young actor works. Davis provides the bizarre and effectively unsettling sound effects and Joy Bice the moody lighting.

Of course, none of this would work were Davis and Lythgoe unable to convince us that their characters were indeed spooked and in fear of their lives. Lythgoe uses a lightly cultured dialect as the young thespian, gradually becoming young lawyer Kipps, showing how he became embroiled in a haunting.

Doing even more outstanding work is the impressive Davis. Donning various hats, cloaks and other accessories from the costume rack of the "theater," he believably carves out numerous roles, creating distinctive colorations for one and all. The nature of his role in "Woman," and the way he carries out the task, gets at the heart of the actor's art – and the very essence of the world of theater.

Freelance writer Eric Marchese has covered entertainment for the Register since 1984.

The Woman in Black
October 26, 2006
Backstage West

Although using Gothic elements from Dickens, Henry James, and Edith Wharton that have long since become clichéd, Stephen Mallatratt's 1989 ghost story, based on Susan Hill's bestselling novel, is in reality a paean to the world of theatre and the intense creativity that's poured into every stage production. By using just two actors and minimal sets, costumes, and special effects, the script is akin to a much different medium: radio plays of the 1930s and '40s, which were a "theatre of the mind," employing language and sound effects to activate the imagination.

Creatively using every corner of this black box venue, Glendele Way-Agle's adroit staging works as both a ghost story and a radio play, the tandem of Ellis LaVere Davis and Jason Lythgoe bringing subtlety to a chilling tale of insanity, hauntings, and curses — Davis as an aging lawyer determined to exorcise the evil spirit that has afflicted him for decades, Lythgoe as the actor whose help he seeks. Following the Davis character's "script" of his life's events, the pair acts out the events leading up to the present, making the show, in essence, a play-within-a-play.

Donning various hats and cloaks from the costume rack of the "theatre," Davis creates singular colorations for the many roles his lawyer persona adopts. His skill gets at the heart of the actor's art and at the nature of what theatre is all about. Using a light, educated British dialect as the nameless thespian, Lythgoe convincingly becomes the lawyer as a young man, showing how he was gradually enmeshed in something beyond his comprehension.

Davis' sound effects are genuinely unsettling, Joy Bice provides moody lighting, and Darcy Lythgoe's period costumes fix the action in a long-past era, while her set design credibly meshes the frame story's deserted theatre with the ghost tale's settings — a dead child's playroom and a gloomy burial ground.