The Woman in Black – 2025 /26 UK tour (PW Productions). Daniel Burke as “The Actor”. Photo by Mark Douet.
The Woman in Black. The Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham.
Everyone screams in terror.
That’s not a line from the play, it’s what actually happens in the audience. Several times!
The Woman in Black stated out as a novel. Written by Susan Hill it was billed as “a ghost story’, and that’s exactly what it is – a good old fashioned ghost story. Released in 1983, it was adapted into a TV film in 1989 and of course a cinema film in 2012. However, it was first adapted as a play by Stephen Mallatratt in 1987 which then opened in the West End in 1989 where it became the second longest running play ever (only second to The Mousetrap). Closing in 2023 it ran for an amazing 13,232 performances.
For the stage play we meet the central character Arthur Kipps years later, where he approaches a young actor as he wants his story to be to shared on stage as “it must be told”. The actor agrees to help and steps in to play Arthur whilst the real Arthur plays all the other characters. It therefore becomes a “play within a play”.
Young Kipps is a lawyer, and he is called upon to settle the estate of a recently deceased reclusive widow. He has to travel to a small coastal town in the north east. There is a mysterious air about the whole town and residents. He is taken by coach and trap to the late widow’s home – the desolate and secluded Eel Marsh House – which can only be accessed by a causeway. At high tide it is completely cut off from the mainland and is surrounded by marshes.
At the widow’s funeral Kipps sees a “woman in black”. And there it begins. Who is she?
No spoilers here incase you haven’t seen it but suffice to say you’re in for a bumpy night! (in fact you might not sleep afterwards!). In fact a large part of the enjoyment is everyone jumping!
The beauty of this piece is there’s no real set as such, there’s only two actors, it simply relies on the piece itself. The use of prop, sound effects, and above all imagination is so effective. It’s hugely atmospheric and you could cut the tension with a knife. It’s a masterpiece in storytelling.
The two actors are superb: John Mackay as Kipps and Daniel Burke as the actor. They are the storytellers and it’s down to them that this as a piece works so well.
So far this play has been seen by over 7 million people. Im glad I’m one of them.
5 stars. The original, and the best.
