“We’ll make an Olivier out of you yet”

I entered the Playhouse foyer with some trepidation this evening. Upon mentioning that I was going to see The Woman in Black to one or two people I had been greeted by raised eyebrows and knowing smiles by those who had previously seen the stage show of Dame Susan Hill’s ghostly tale. As someone who quite likes a good scare, I wasn’t too concerned, and on one of the hottest days of the year, what harm could come?

As we collected our pre-ordered interval drinks it was wonderful to experience a busy, buzzy ambience of Monday night theatregoers. Made up of a mix of couples, friends and a number of school parties (fitting for a show that has recently won an award for “Best Theatre Production for Schools”) it was just lovely to be back sharing the anticipation of a theatrical performance, post-pandemic. All very COVID-safe and, despite being so-called ‘Freedom Day’ across the UK, most were wearing masks and keeping to their own party.

As we settled into our seats and took in the stage set-up, I was a little unsettled by the sloping of the stage floor towards the audience; coupled with dusty-looking shabby grey sheets and angular gothic-like furniture, the bright summer’s evening just moments behind me was soon replaced with a growing sense of unease.

Hill’s story focuses on young lawyer Arthur Kipps, tasked with a trip to the small town of Crythin Gifford to attend the funeral of a Mrs Alice Drablow, and to deal with her papers in the remotely situated Eel Marsh House. Stephen Mallatratt’s adaptation of the book cleverly takes Kipps’ retelling of the terrifying events of his time at Eel Marsh House and turns it into a nerve-wracking play within a play.

Director Robin Herford’s production begins with Old Kipps (Robert Goodale) nervously entering the stage and hesitantly reading from his hefty manuscript. He is soon joined by ‘the Actor’, played with a Michael Sheen-like energy and charisma by the brilliant Antony Eden (no, not that one).

While the production is basically a two-hander, there could easily be a whole company of actors on stage alongside Goodale and Eden, such is their effortless shifting between characters. While Eden’s focus is upon the Actor’s performance as a young Arthur Kipps, he seamlessly switches between that and his role of the Actor who is coaxing Old Kipps’ tale from the depths of his tortured psyche; his line “We’ll make an Olivier out of you yet” is particularly apt due to Goodale’s Olivier award-winning adaptation of a P.G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster story for Best New Comedy in 2014.

Equally, Goodale manages somehow to inhabit the roles not only of unsteady Old Kipps, but also those colourful characters who help the Actor to bring his dark memories to life. As well as providing chillingly animated narration throughout the show, he is at once, knowledgeable landowner Samuel Daily, who Kipps meets on the train, then local man Mr Horatio Jerome enlisted to help with Kipps task, but too terrified to be of much use. Then he brings Keckwick to life, the local pony and trap driver who takes young Kipps across the causeway to Eel Marsh House. With each different character, Goodale seems to physically shapeshift; his confident portrayal of Samuel Daily worlds apart from the petrified Old Kipps who opens the show.

Despite the suffocating heat of the evening outside, the brilliant use of sound (designed by Sebastian Frost) and lighting (Kevin Sleep) bring the eerie, salty marshes of Crythin Gifford to life. Add to that the superbly acted script and it could have been November in some remote part of the northern wilds of England. Unafraid of long silences and plunging the auditorium into darkness but for the frantic waving of a torch beam, PW Productions have put together a tremendously entertaining and gripping performance of one of the West-End’s longest running plays.