Woman in Black @ Darlington Civic

With the current trend for immediate visual gratification, be it in the movies, online or via ultra-realistic video games, good old fashioned ghost stories are often thought of as relics of days gone-by;  the telling of tales around a log fire, the wind howling at the windows and the shadows playing havoc with the imagination are a long way from the glossy, 'served-on-a-plate' style of titillation we have become accustomed to.  And yet when done properly, a good ghost story uses the most powerful form of visual imagery available, the human mind.  Ghost stories let the listener make their own decisions as to what they can & can't see, what they expect to happen and ultimately how it makes them feel and this play is, without doubt, the very best ghost story there is.

The Woman in Black has been playing to full theatres for over 25 years now and despite, or perhaps because of, it's sparse set and 2 person cast, it still has the power to worry, scare, haunt and shock everyone who comes to see it.

The premise of the play is that of a story within a story; Arthur Kipps (played by Julian Forsyth) wants, nay needs, to tell his tale of what happened to him when he went to settle the affairs of a lonely widow who had been living as a recluse for the past 50 years.  In doing so he hopes to exorcise the demons that have plagued him ever since.  He approaches a young actor (Antony Eden) to help him prepare and deliver his monologue to his family and friends and so we are led through the story as the two men recount and re-enact the fateful days Arthur spent at Eel Marsh House.

I could go on and tell more of the 'play within a play' but to do so would possibly stray towards giving too much away.  What I will say is if you have seen the recent Hammer movie production starring Daniel Radcliffe then be warned; the movie was a little jumpy, a little scary and a little shocking - this is truly terrifying, the atmosphere builds and builds and the shocks when they come are so real that you crave for the house lights to come up so you can retreat to the safety of the real world.

The Woman in Black is at Darlington Civic Theatre until Saturday 9th February - go and see it, it's like a 90 minute workout for your heart.