Revision:The Woman in Black

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General

• Main Aim/Intent : To shock + scare audience

• Director – Robert Hereford

• Theatre: Fortune theatre (modest west end theatre) – November 2005 (matinee)– Show at Fortune for 17 years

• Adapted by Stephen Mallatratt (playwright) from novel of same title (Susan Hill)

• Seats – Dress circle to front stage right – Couldn’t see thrust – Sightlines

• Stage design – End-on + thrust at stage centre – used at moments: Danger + fear

• Main plot: Contents of novel ………Sub Plot: Adaptations by Mallatrat

• 2 Actors – Paul Chapman (Arthur Kipps) + Daniel Coonan (Actor)

Lighting

• Novel (yellow gel to look older and in past?) + Adaptations (Bright white gel) split → Gel filter on lantern - Can easily distinguish between 2

• Blackouts:
  • Allows actors to change characters
  • Adds believability for audience in imagining different characters
    • Paul Chapman (old) changing: Narrator → Driver of horse + carriage
  • More realistic character changes

• Gels:
  • Coloured gel filter on lantern – alters colour of beam
  • Changing mood + Fluctuating temperatures
    • Characters comment on coldness – Steel blue gel used to emit blue light + cold feeling for audience to react to – more realistic

• Gobo’s:
  • Screen (cut out shape) in front of stage lamp to project an image onto cyclorama (backdrop)
  • To establish location of scene – adds to realism + belief of events/locations
    • Train – Gobo of window
    • Church – Large cross
    • Inside House – Elegant staircase
    • Outside house – Always gobo of outline of house

• Spotlight focused light with barn doors:
  • Narrow beam of light to follow movement of actor
    • Focus attention on “actor” over narrator e.g. scene where actor in bed – Emphasises feel of scene

• Dimmed Lighting: - Constant theme
  • Very dark – WIB appears/anything relating to haunting/anything ghostly about to happen
  • When goes dark – audience learns to expect a scare → build-up + suspense
  • Acts as a cover – WIB can creep onto stage unnoticed before making the intended sudden appearance

+ to intensity

Sound

• Critical element of success
• Series of recorded sounds:
  • Blood-curdling screams – Effective- Sudden – Scare + shock audience
  • Horses pulling cart heard before scream – Audience learns to associate this with impending scream – Adds to suspense
  • They know “scare” approaching – Can’t work out when → Still scares

• Can legitimise statement of location:
  • Graveyard – Sound of ravens – Noise associated to hauntings + a scary location → Realistic for audience → Tension

• Build-up to scary moment
  • Heartbeat sounds – Prepares audience for a scare – Don’t know when/what going to happen → Builds atmosphere → Hugely effective

• Reference to Mr Bruce – Imaginary sound technician – Directors intention of audience being aware of play within a play – Brechtian technique

Set

• End on + thrust at centre stage:
  • Closer to audience, used at scary + danger moments – Adds to scare
    • Quick sand + dog scene

• At first seemed bare – intent of director → Feel of being in a rehearsal room

• Gauze:
  • Painted cloth – Lit from front = opaque
    • Lit from behind = Transparent
  • Diffuses whole stage vision/picture
  • Conceals bedroom/nursery behind “unopenable/locked door”
  • Opportunity for backstage crew to change the set e.g. the nursery tidy to untidy in matter of minutes
  • Can scare audience – Flash between visible/concealment

• Little set changes – adds to feel of play within a play (subplot/plot) – intended

• Practical door to nursery

• Minimalist props – Chest hamper believably became: Bed/Desk/Carriage/Horse & trap

• Small space used to advantage:
  • Whole stage used
  • WIB enters from audience onto thrust – Involves audience = added scare – More intimate with audience

• Levelling - Use of staircase e.g. WIB on stairs at higher level – Powerful, scary + symbolic

• Representational set + props

• Hidden wings

• Versatile set – Can become many locations with little effort/set changes

Costume

• Late Victorian dress – Authentic

• Costumes changed to suit changing characters – Open use of clothes rail – Brechtian technique

• Actor:
  • Slim tie – brown
  • Dark colours
  • Pinstriped suit – white shirt + waistcoat

• Older man – A Kipps: Can become different characters: E.g. Different coats + hats
  • Change from black suit
  • Scarf
  • Brown trench coat
  • Spotted slim tie
  • Brown + black hats

Acting

• Convincing accents

• Actor:
  • Voice – Fast, nervous, panicky, high pitched – Influences audience to be scared
  • Facial gestures – Fear, wide eyes, mouth open – When looking into mist confused eyes
  • Audience feels sorry for him when in house – His silent nerves (face stretched + frown)
  • Creates naturalism – Use of imagination – Dog/marsh scene – Bending down + arms open
  • Convinced audience that he had become A Kipps

• Narrator/ A Kipps:
  • Quick pace
  • Audience believed in him as different characters
  • Narrative
  • Slow walking
  • Changed accents e.g. to country accent
  • Changed movements for each diff character e.g. for old man walking slower

Comments

Take from notes written by skj72 on TSR Forums.

These notes are based on the requirements for AS Drama module 3.