Things go bump in the night at the ACT. And then they squeak. And moan. And sigh. And scream!
The screaming came mostly from the audience at "The Woman in Black," all of whom were having a fine, frightening time at the theater. As part of ACT's Winter Thrills series, this 1987 ghost play allows two terrific Seattle actors, David Pichette and Mark Anders, to scare the bejeezus out of their fans.
"The Woman in Black" is a tip of the hat to the 19th-century ghost story, back when gothic meant creaky mansion doors and a dog howling alone in the night as the hairs rise slowly on the back of the narrator's neck.
In this tale, the hapless naïf wandering through abandoned graveyards is not a governess in a lacy nightgown holding her candle high, but a very young lawyer named Kipps (played by Anders). He has been sent by his employers to settle an estate of an elderly woman. The house has been abandoned after the woman's death, nobody will go near it even in daylight, and sudden mists come down, leading the unwary astray into the treacherous quicksand surrounding the place.
In a rational world, Kipps would chuck the papers on a bonfire and run for the nearest pub and a quick drink before heading back to London. But, of course, there's no fun in being rational. While the audience and Kipps know that staying overnight in the house is not the best of ideas, we're all willing to stick around and find out what does cause that odd creaking noise at the top of the stairs.
In Fay Weldon's stage adaptation of "Jane Eyre" (note to ACT artistic director Kurt Beattie: please consider this for Winter Thrills 2006!), one of the characters suddenly turns to the narrator and asks why Jane ventures up the attic stairs to investigate the odd noises at the top. "Because she has to," snaps the narrator, "because she's so curious."
Like Jane, we in the audience are so consumed by curiosity that we are willing to be frightened out of our seats, if only to find out what young Kipps learns at the top of the attic stairs as well as why a much older Kipps (David Pichette) remains so literally haunted by his experiences.
If you're a huge fan of ghost stories and gothics (the 19th-century kind), you'll probably guess the twists before the final blackout. But the journey up the stairs, the walk through the graveyard and the run across the bogs is so satisfying that you won't really care about the "final" answer to the play's central question, "Who is the woman in black?"
Besides playing Kipps at two different ages, Anders and Pichette create a host of other characters, with the majority going to Pichette. As always, he gives each of his personages a touch of the acidic as well as wit. Watching him play at being a very bad actor in the opening moments of the play reminds you how very good he really is.
The nice play of personalities between Anders and Pichette bring out the humor as well as the horror in the script.
Deborah Fialkow is the third person on stage in the silent but essential role of the woman. She sneaks into place so quietly that she startled more than one audience member, who looked up to see a woman in black standing beside them.
Presented on a largely bare stage in ACT's theater-in-round space, Dominic CodyKramers' marvelous sound designs and Greg Sullivan's shadowy lighting lend "The Woman in Black" its eerie atmosphere.
As one friend left the theater that night, she remarked to me that she planned to sleep with her bedroom lamp on.
You've been warned. Now, go and enjoy a few chills at the ACT. And don't be surprised if you feel like screaming.
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