The Woman in Black
Theatre Royal Bath
Theatre audiences love being scared out of their wits. Shakespeare knew the power of the theatrical ghost as did Noel Coward, and Bath's own Arnold Ridley who had a huge hit with The Ghost Train at the beginning of the last century.
But when you talk of theatrical ghosts these days it is Susan Hill's story that usually first comes to mind because it has been so hugely successful.
It's been running in London's West End for a quarter of a century and here in Bath it has been to the Theatre Royal more than half a dozen times – and it's still packing them in to the rafters every night.
Much of the play's success stems from the fact that Stephen Mallatratt, who adapted the short novel, asks we the audience to use our imaginations. And of course those imaginations produce more horror than was ever dreamed up by the film people at Hammer.
The story calls for horse-drawn carriages, rattling trains, haunted graveyards, Gothic churches, creepy houses and brave little dogs yet pretty much all we have on stage are two actors – in this production Stuart Fox and Gwynford Jones.
So although we see the ghostly form of the lady in black courtesy of director Robin Herford, the full horror of the mists over the marshes, the ghostly death rides of the carriage crossing the causeway and the faithful hound trapped in the deadly mud, is all supplied by members of the audience themselves.
The film version of the story – which differs a bit from the theatrical version – supplied a whole new generation of Woman in Black theatregoers, all ready to be scared witless.
Perhaps the strangest thing about The Woman in Black though is that however many times you watch it, it still has the power to make you uneasy in your seat. And that's because the neat twist at the end is, however many times you come across it, always as shocking as the very first time you heard it.
The show runs until Saturday.
Christopher Hansford