Horror is used to greatest effect in books and film, and Susan Hill's novel "The Woman in Black: A Ghost Story" is no exception. With this weekend's student production of "The Woman in Black" at the Moore Theater, this horror tale makes the jump to the stage with mixed results.
English playwright Stephen Mallatratt adapted Hill's book for the stage. Mallatratt adds his own twist to the story by employing a play-within-a-play scheme to frame the action.
The story centers around a young lawyer, Arthur Kipps (Michael Vestergaard '15) who has hired an actor (Philip Probasco '14) to help put on a play that explains a traumatic event Kipps had experienced many years ago. The hired actor, however, realizes that Kipps is an awful performer and offers to play the major role, Kipps, while the real Kipps plays everyone else in his story.
Kipps' tale begins when he is sent by his firm to settle the estate of the recently deceased Mrs. Alice Drablow in a remote part of England. When he arrives in her small town, Kipps finds the residents are afraid of the house Drablow lived in, with good reason: The isolated property is home to a malevolent spirit known as The Woman in Black (Elizabeth Southwell '15). As Kipps goes about his work in Drablow's house, he must contend with the specter's terrifying presence.
Vestergaard and Probasco do a fine job carrying the play, which is essentially a two-man show. In a standout performance, Vestergaard portrays Kipps as a shell-shocked man who merely wants his story to be told. However, Kipps' sudden development into an amazing actor over the timespan covered by the play just a few days is somewhat hard to believe. Nevertheless, Vestergaard's performance is absolutely outstanding. His British accent is flawless and he seamlessly becomes the other characters in the play within a play.
The plot, while interesting, takes a while to really get going. The play-within-a-play structure added an extra dimension to the story, though the transition from Kipps' account to the play was confusing and muddled at times. The dual narration of the play was also unclear, as it switched arbitrarily between Vestergaard and Probasco.
Probasco's accent wavers through much of the performance and his portrayal of the actor portraying Kipps seems ludicrous at times. During the scenes in which Kipps is being terrorized by the ghost, for example, Probasco gives a classic display of histrionics instead of true terror, and the humor detracts from the scenes' potential for horror. His final soliloquy at the end of the play is meant to be the emotional climax of the play, and yet nothing comes of it. However, Probasco's delivery is incredibly natural and believable in several turning points when his character discusses Kipps' story with Kipps himself.
Southwell appears in bits and flashes. The viewer is aware of her presence, but never fully sees her until the very end. Although she does speak in the play, the dialogue is less important than her physical appearance, which terrifies both Kipps and the audience.
The set design makes use of only a few objects to create a variety of scenes, a testament to the excellent work of set designer Nicholas O'Leary '14 and director Veronica Haakonsen '12. The stage is split into two sections with a sheet of gauze serving as a divider. In the first section, there is a coat rack, a few chairs, a door and a trunk. Using these few objects, different scenes are created in inventive ways the trunk serves as a horse and carriage at one point, and the coat rack doubles as a door.
The second half of the stage acted as both a graveyard and bedroom, but throwing sheets over bedroom furniture did not make for convincing gravestones. Yet combined with the natural costume design of Susan Hakes '12 and the superb lighting by Stacey Derosier '12, these scenes were nevertheless aesthetically pleasing.
The horror story of "The Woman in Black" will leap right back from stage to screen in 2012, when it will be adapted into a film starring Daniel Radcliffe as Kipps.
