Leading players frightfully good in Circle Theatre's ghost story

10/10/99

By Tom Sime / The Dallas Morning News

FORT WORTH - Singing, dancing horror stories - Jekyll & Hyde, The Phantom of the Opera - are all the rage onstage lately. But Circle Theatre's The Woman in Black is a shivery reminder of what really makes the hair stand on end. Stephen Mallatratt's adaptation of Susan Hill's novel has been playing in London for 10 years straight, but this is its area premiere.

The play, set in a small London theater, is not only a good, solid ghost yarn but also an effective fable of what stage artists call their "process." Arthur Kipps (John Wayne Shafer), a lawyer haunted by memories of a frightening incident from his early manhood, hires an unnamed actor (Ashley Wood) to help him learn "expression and delivery." He plans to use his new skills to reveal his secret to his family members "for my health and reason . . . I cannot carry the burden any longer."

The actor, however, hopes to make more of the tale telling than the mere catharsis Kipps envisions. He devises a prop and lighting design and a sound-effects scheme. He decides that he will portray Kipps, while Kipps himself takes on a variety of roles to flesh out the first-person narrative.

Of course it's preposterous that Kipps, who can barely speak a sentence in public in the first scene, becomes a brilliant actor overnight. But that's the magic of the play. It's as if both men become possessed. Mr. Wood and Mr. Shafer, under the direction of George H. Brown, skillfully seduce us into going along with the premise.

Kipps' tale takes him from middle age back to his 20s. He's summoned by the head of his legal firm to attend to the papers of a deceased client, the 87-year-old Alice Drablow. Once ensconced at Eel Marsh, a lonely house surrounded by bogs, he finds himself confronting supernatural visions, hallucinations both auditory and visual.

The actors keep us deeply involved, even as we question such details as digital-quality sound and battery-operated flashlights in the Victorian setting. Both performers are strong, but Mr. Shafer has more room to play as Kipps and everyone but Kipps: He's also an aged solicitor, a menacing coachman and many others, all of whom know more about the Drablow story than Kipps.

Mr. Brown's sound design sometimes piles on the effects too thickly, but John Leach's lighting is spot-on throughout. It often reveals details that shan't be revealed here. Suffice it to say there's nothing to fear but the dark.

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

The Woman in Black at Circle Theatre, 230 W. Fourth St., Fort Worth, through Nov. 13. Adapted by Stephen Mallatratt from a story by Susan Hill. Directed by George H. Brown. Set by Bill Newberry. Lighting by John Leach. Costumes by Barbara Cox. Sound by Mr. Brown. Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 4 and 8:30 p.m. Tickets $15 to $20. Call 817-877-3040.