Snug as a bug in a rug — that’s my recommended OOTD for when you go to watch The Woman in Black, a Susan Mills horror novella turned humble-budget production that opened its silver anniversary show yesterday in Singapore.
Arthur Kipps (performed by the play’s original director Robin Herford) is an old man desperate to get off his chest the nightmare he’s had to live with all these years, a nightmare that began when he was a young solicitor sent to the Eel Marsh House to carry out the legal proceedings of one dead Alice Drablow. He commissions a young actor (played by former Milky Bar kid Antony Eden) to help him stage his story and what follows are re-enactments of Kipps’ experiences many years ago, which, through the mysterious woman in black, develop a link to present-day in a horrible, horrible turn.
Spine-tingling synopsis aside, Herford’s work is theatre at its best. The stage is barebones, so that you may be fooled into thinking you’re in for a dull — creepy, yes, after all you’ve heard, but still dull — series of monologues. But the hard-hitting recorded sounds, the creaking that comes from wooden floorboards you can’t see from your seat, the use of a filmy curtain to filter the light and create smog where there is none, the vintage furniture that seems to appear out of nowhere, that huge wicker basket that makes a better pony and trap than actual storage and the actors’ magnificent use of expression to create the illusion of space — you’ll wonder why any other play bothers with a large budget at all.
The cast was monumental to the opening night’s success. Herford’s portrayal of Kipps and the story’s fuzzier characters — four in total if I’ve counted it right — was mesmerising. Eden as The Actor was overdone — his overtly harried demeanour partly contributing to our restlessness in the first half of the show — but only slightly. But the star of the night was clearly the woman in black — the actress (or actor, who knows) that fills the role must have a background in dance for she practically floats into position and in one particularly stunning shot in the makeshift children’s nursery moves in a way that makes our hair stand.
ICYMI the first time: snug as a bug in a rug — that’s my recommended OOTD for when you go to watch The Woman in Black in this pre-Christmas weather, for you’ll need all the comfort you can get. You probably won’t be scared sh*tless, but you’ll see things you won’t soon forget.
The Woman in Black is showing through Dec. 15, 3pm, 8pm at the Kallang Theatre. Tickets are SGD68 — 128 from Sistic.
