Theatergoers "on the other side of the pond" (that's us) may not be as familiar with The Woman in Black as their London counterparts. The reason? London audiences have kept one of their theaters filled with this hit show since 1987. Thankfully, one needn't book airline tickets abroad to see the play. Renaissance Theaterworks has taken on the challenge of mounting Woman in Black in Milwaukee's intimate Studio Theater.
The theater's dimensions are of prime importance, given the fact that there are only two cast members (both male). As the men become immersed in a series of mysterious events, the onstage tension must build and build until the final curtain. However, let's go back to the beginning.
As the play opens, we are introduced to Arthur Kipps, a middle-aged London lawyer. He is seeking the advice of a young actor on how to best relate the haunting events he experienced 30 years earlier to a series of invited family and friends. By doing so, the lawyer hopes to "exorcise" the horrific events from his mind, allowing him to sleep at last without nightmares.
The connection between the lawyer and actor is difficult to establish at first, and audiences are likely to be muddled until the first few scenes have elapsed. It takes awhile before the play's details are all in place. Until then, it's slow going. The lawyer and the actor finally agree to re-enact the events as a play-within-a-play. The tale takes the two men on a metaphysical journey to the remote English town where the lawyer, as a young man, had to travel on business. His goal was to return with the legal paperwork of a recently deceased, elderly client. He was told beforehand that the woman lived alone in a mansion located far from the nearest village. He also knew the mansion was situated in a bog that often wrapped the house in a dense fog.
At several times of day, during high tide, the mansion was completely cut off from the surrounding land (making it a perfect setting for a mystery). Undeterred, the young lawyer sets off in search of the mansion (to find the paperwork). It is a long and circuitous route. As he finally enters the town, the townsfolk seem inordinately suspicious of him. He offers to pay someone as an assistant as he sorts out the paperwork in the woman's mansion, but no one volunteers. There's only an old farmer who will take him to the house by horse and cart. Even the farmer refuses to stay long, promising to pick up the lawyer in a few hours, before the tide goes out. That's about as far as this reviewer will go, too, so as not to spoil the story. But rest assured, things don't stay quiet in the deserted mansion for long. Things go bump in the night; screams are heard from behind closed doors -- and so forth.
The play is an exceptionally good showcase for its small cast. As the middle-aged lawyer, Jonathan Gillard Daly hits exactly the right emotional notes throughout. Tall and statesmanlike in his tailored suit, he doesn't strike one as becoming easily rattled. Daly draws the audience into the play, almost apologetically. Only the thought of expunging the story from his mind forces him to continue until the conclusion.
The actor, Brian Gill, does a superb job of recreating the events that still haunt the lawyer. Gill is handsome and confident. He never loses his cool, until things eventually take a sudden twist. Despite its slow start, The Woman in Black should enthrall anyone who longs for a chillingly good mystery.
