|
Regional Reviews: St. Louis The Woman in Black Also see Richard's reviews of Elsinore and Professor House
David Acton is lawyer Arthur Kipps, who lived through a strange trauma decades earlier. Kipps has enlisted a young actor, played by James Byng, to play Kipps in a show for his family, explaining his lifelong torment. The elder Kipps will play everyone else in the story. It's spell-binding, thanks to them both, and the ruthless shaking of their English reserve makes us once again question the foundations of our civilization in the way that mad English characters often do. The acting and pacing create an affectionate bond between the actors and the audience, almost in spite of the commonly known elements of ghosts and curses and madness. But what we see becomes what we think, and all the impressive stage imagery strikes on our souls like a hammer. There are moments of genuine artistry, as the young lawyer (in flashback) dares to spend the night in a haunted house. Sebastian Frost has cobbled together a memorable sound design, and Michael Holt's simple set benefits greatly from a moth-eaten moiré scrim and the occasional burst of cobwebby mist, under gasp-inducing lights by Anshuman Bhatia. And somewhere along the line, what we see opens the door to a whole unseen realm. The play, mostly set in 1934, turns genuinely dark in a church memorial service for a Miss Drablow, the reclusive owner of a home on a watery marsh. A tall feminine form appears now and then, adding an alien sense of spirituality. The eulogy for that strange, feared lady also evokes a kind of awestruck credulity in us, as we weigh the implications of this corruptible flesh, turning into an unfortunate new kind of incorruptibility. She appears, almost impossibly, almost half made-up of empty space, as seen in flashes of light. Strange heartbeat sounds fill the lonely night, as young Arthur goes through her estate. Even before he mentions the submerged quality of his surroundings (the home becomes inaccessible at high tide), the image is already conjured in our minds. A misty graveyard transforms into a little boy's room, filled with toys and signs of love. The townspeople seem guarded against, and later protective of, Arthur. One of the country people, the lawyer Mr. Jerome (and what an honor to see Mr. Acton on stage showing such ringing variety), accuses Arthur of hallucinating the Drablow ghost, even though another local, Mr. Keckwick, fell victim to its curse years before. A strange vision of a wrecked carriage and a maddened horse becomes indelible. If only in our minds. On paper, it probably sounds a bit familiar. But the acting is full-bodied, and Mr. Acton is instantly identifiable before speaking–or even moving–in each of his roles. Playful Mr. Byng serves as his acting coach in the opening scenes, where old Arthur must grow at ease on stage in a rented theater. The young man teaching the older about theatre is probably the most shocking reversal you'll see on stage all this year, a young man as mentor to this old master. That, and how a secretive family, marked by tragedy, now exists outside of time and space, in search of revenge–or at least, of some kind of violent cleansing. The Woman in Black, produced by The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, continues through October 26, 2025, at the Loretto-Hilton Center, 130 Edgar Rd., St. Louis MO. For tickets and information, please visit www.repstl.org. Cast: Production Staff: |
