Our drama assessment was to watch the play “Woman in Black” at the Fortune Theatre in London. The original 1950’s play starred Orlando Wells and Michael Mears as the two main and only characters and directed by Robin Hereford.
Set.
As the curtain raised and the performance began a minimalist set was revealed; stool, chair, basket and a coat-rack. Initially, the minimalist set predicted that the play would be slow-moving, however the lack stage furniture actually focused the audience even more on the storyline, as there were few distractions. This also allowed the actors to effectively include Drama Mediums such as multiple prop. The actors were so convincing in their use of the props, that one truly believed a wooden box was a horse and cart. The colours of the set were dull and gloomy; blacks, greys and browns – this delivered the effect of shadowing the stage and intensifying the atmosphere.
The designer was probably using these colours to connote death, sadness and the melodramatic era of the Victorians, who mainly wore dreary coloured clothes. The mysteriousness behind the story was seeping through the dismal pieces of cloth hanging from the stage at extremities of the performance area – this certainly intensified the atmosphere upon the first appearance of the Woman in Black. As she first paced down the aisle, the dim lighting and atmosphere increased the mystery of a woman in a black cape slowly moving towards stage. Her hidden face made us feel unsafe and unsure . In a way, the small, old, shabby theatre chosen to hold the performance becomes part of the set. In my opinion, a larger modern theatre venue wouldn’t create the same claustrophobic atmosphere.
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Costume.
The costumes although simple, were effective. All characters wore Victorian formal clothes, suits and waistcoats, complimenting the set perfectly, the dark colours blending with the scenery – whereas bright costumes would ruin the atmosphere. I found it quite ingenious how one of the props on stage was actually the wardrobe for all the costumes. The actors literally changed on stage – just by placing a hat on or picking up a briefcase they had changed character. The best costume, in my opinion, was the Woman in Black’s mask. Dressed completely in, her bright white mask juxtaposes with the rest of her costume flawlessly to shock the audience in a way that made most people’s hearts a skip a beat as she turned her head.
Sound.
The sound used was mainly recorded. Sound was used to set each scene such as the train, or the office with the prominent sound of the ticking clock. I particularly liked the use of the recorded sound of the horse and carriage crash, as when the sound of the hooves was heard a feeling of dread descended. It kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. The sound of the rocking chair is another clever use of recorded. This was effective as it played with my senses…the stage was in darkness.
However, the best use of sound, was, none at all – total silence. The audience sat, in silence; anticipating the next move. The silence was just long enough to instil fear and not so long that the tension was overstretched.
Lighting.
Most of the time the lighting was dimed, but when the Play within the play would come up, the lighting would change to a yellow/orange bright light – this light-hearted interlude broke up underlying sinister plot. The first blackout caused panic as it played with the audience’s senses. The main lighting was a simple spotlight targeting the performing character. I liked the use of the gauze to separate the upstage and downstage: alternate lighting effects, from backlight to front revealing and concealing different parts of the set at any one time.
Characters and Characterisations.
The performance started slowly, accentuated due to the ‘play within a play’ element, multi-rolling actors initially appeared of low standard. However, a momentum gained clearly the actors were very skilled and able to convincingly switch from character to character, I especially thought that Michael Mears (Arthur Kipps) was very good at switching from one character to the next. His body language changed, his accent, his stance and also his prop. Orlando Wells, on the other hand, only seemed to play two main parts, neither very interesting. He too used emotion in his voice very clearly as it was believable, however, Mears’ performance was more impressive. Another good aspect of the Characterisation was that they both had multiple roles plus they were narrators. At one point Michael Mears turned to a narrator very clearly by standing at the front corner of the stage in a spotlight, he would talk directly to the audience, filling them in on details which could possibly be misunderstood. I liked this because there were some moments in the play which I didn’t quite understand but Michael Mears explained them all as narrator.
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Sequence and Units of Action.
My most memorable moment was when the armchair started rocking , this built up tension in the audience as nobody knew what was making that noise. Another memorable instance was the moment when the previously locked door swung open accompanied by an ear-deafening scream. Everybody jumped back in their seats and it made me laugh because we were all so scared it was just the shock and emphasis from absolute silence and mystery to a belting scream and a door banging open which intensified the effect. The most psychologically scary moment in the piece, for me, was when Arthur Kipps entered the boy’s room for the first time and the music box was playing slowly, it played on my mind because of the slow tune going round and around; I was expecting a little boy to suddenly appear…fortunately, he didn’t.
Dialogue.
The dialogue spoken in The Woman in Black was formal; indicative time of the Victorian period. The fact that the whole play was in different forms of old English made it seem more like a ghost tale and more realistic. Each character had a different tone or accent which made it a lot easier to recognise each character. The character whose tone caught my attention was the Scottish man on the train as he was the most elusive in his reference to the mystery and legend – his tone was also memorable as he had an angry and loud register.
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Pacing and Timing
There were a couple of incidents where I thought that the action was deliberately accelerated to induce high emotion and panic. For example, at the start when Arthur Kipps was saying how he had to tell his story, he was talking very fast without pause or making eye contact due to his apparent fear of not only his story but also stage fright. His pace and timing was deliberately out of sync with the rest of the play – highlighting effective use of pace and timing.
Directors Decisions.
I was amazed at how clever some of the director’s decisions were. The actors showed an apparent difference between their characterisations. When they would be a character they would talk in the 1st person, as if it is happening to them, but whilst they were the narrators they were talking in the 3rd person, as if to tell a story. It made everything understandable and better to watch, in my opinion because there was an obvious change over in roles.
Special Effects.
The smoke effect was one of the most effective in the play, as it swirled, visibility lessened. The smoke was used when Arthur Kipps was following the Woman in black to the grave yard and by playing with our senses, the play became more realistic as with our senses heightened, we became more aware of the portrayed surroundings. The use of the gauze was powerful, it split the stage in two, allowing for the element of surprise as a change in lighting also switched the focus of the storyline. Although I was impressed by most of the special effects, I was a little bit disappointed with the back projection used for the House and the Church. When the house was being projected it made me realise that I’m back in a theatre watching a play, instead of actually being there as a bystander because the house was so unrealistic. The church wasn’t as bad because it was just a cross lit on the Gauze, I think it would have been more realistic if a few candles or torches had been used to the side of the stage, as in real churches.
The overall play was thoroughly enjoyable and a great experience. The style of Gran Guignal is quite ingenious as it plays with people emotions. The Woman in Black is celebrating its 21st anniversary in the West End in June 2010 which is a great honour and I’m sure I’ll probably go and see it again soon.
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