Based on Susan Hill’s 1983 gothic horror novel, The Woman in Black follows bright young solicitor Arthur Kipps, assigned to manage the estate of a recently deceased widow, Alice Drablow, in the north of England.

At the isolated Eel Marsh House, Kipps is haunted by a local spectre, a woman dressed in black, with tragic consequences.

The book was adapted for the stage by Stephen Mallatratt in 1987 and is the second-longest running play on the West End, behind Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap.

This touring production is directed by Robin Herford, who commissioned the initial adaptation from Mallatratt at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough and has been involved with the show since its inception.

John Waters and Daniel MacPherson in The Woman in Black Photo © Justin Nicholas

The stage adaptation condenses Hill’s novel into a dynamic two-hander: the audience meets Kipps as an old man who has hired an actor to help him tell his story, hoping to exorcise the haunting experiences of his past. Kipps and The Actor rehearse, with The Actor playing a young Kipps and Kipps himself playing all the other characters. With this meta-theatrical framing, the audience sees...