Review: The Woman In Black

Still thrilling after all these years

Thriller theatre is making a comeback. While a revival of Ira Levin's Deathtrap opens next week, Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman's Ghost Stories have proved that reports of the genre's death have been exaggerated. The truth is, it never died. For over 50 years, The Mousetrap has been putting food on the table for its producers, and last year was the 20th anniversary of The Woman in Black.
The late Stephen Mallatratt's adaptation of Susan Hill's ghost story remains some of the smartest writing in the West End. The two-hander (not counting the creepy title role) tells the story of solicitor Arthur Kipps who is sent to sort out the affairs of a deceased client. Naturally, the house is on a remote island. Unsurprisingly, the locals are a sinister bunch. But by setting the action in a play within in a play, Kipps (the excellent Michael Mears) enlists the help of an actor (a tad hammy Orlando Wells) to rehearse the telling of his tale.

This is as much about the power of theatre and an audience's imagination as anything. And director Robin Herford knows what all good directors need to know – what Hitchcock called the difference between suspense and surprise. This is the standard by which Deathtrap will be judged.

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