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'Woman in Black' gives new meaning to stage fright

Photo from Nicole Jeannine Smith

In 'The Woman in Black,' Arthur Kipps (Glenn Gover), left, enlists the help of an actor (Christopher Rutherford) to translate his diary of terrifying events into a public performance.

By KATHY L. GREENBERG | Tribune correspondent

Published: October 21, 2009

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I am a confirmed ghost story/horror fanatic. I've seen and read so many hellacious tales, I've become desensitized to just about every spook out there. But once in a while, when I forget to look behind a door or under the bed, the Bogeyman catches me unaware and sets my heart racing. Such was the case with the Gorilla Theatre's production of "The Woman in Black," Stephen Mallatratt's adaptation of the 1983 novel by Susan Hill.

The story is gothic in every sense of the word: a haunted house, a mysterious figure and history that no one talks about, an innocent thrust into a dark past that is not his own, deafening sounds, blinding mists and the obligatory overgrown graveyard.

Arthur Kipps (Glenn Gover) enlists the help of an actor (Christopher Rutherford) to translate his diary — in which he's recorded terrifying events — into a public performance. Kipps believes that by sharing the details of his past, he will exorcise the history that has plagued him for years.

Since the elder Kipps is a poor performer of his own words, the actor takes on the role of the younger Kipps voiced in the diary. The real Kipps instead plays everyone else noted in his journal.

Years ago, Kipps had traveled to a small English town as the solicitor to Alice Drablow's estate at Eel Marsh House. While attending the old widow's funeral, Kipps spies a strange woman dressed in black. Later, he begins to see and hear more strange things: a horse and cart trapped in the marshes, screams and, again, the haunting vision of the woman in black. As the story unfolds, Kipps learns of the Drablow family's secret and the tragedy it precipitated, prompting the question, "Will history repeat itself?"

The multi-talented Ami Sallee Corley directed this spine-tingling production. She blocked her actors to get the creepiest effect, just as lighting designer Keith Arsenault and sound designer Chris "Dickie" Corley manipulated the senses with sound and shadow. There's nothing more unnerving than feeling sound vibrations in the dark.

Gover and Rutherford seemed to have stepped right off the streets of Victorian London, so perfect were they in their British manner and speech. Gover, in particular, sailed through a number of English accents, but both actors gave superb performances.

So if you want to get in the Halloween spirit, forget Rocky Horror and see this play.