Review: The Woman in Black

The stage version was originally a stop-gap budget Christmas production for the Stephen Joseph Theatre and has become the theatrical equivalent of the production line of a small factory.

It continues to tour. And tour. And tour. Actors have come, and actors have gone, but it sails serenely on, frequently packing in the audiences. Does it still work, and engage its audiences? Well, judging by the rumbles of agitated disquiet for this performance, yes it does, and largely because the lighting and sound effects are still as crisp and sharp as the edge of a brand new fiver. With great respect to the performers, these are the things that make the audiences gasp, make them jump, and which keep them on the edge of their seats. The story isn’t particularly edgy, or that supernatural. A young child dies, and someone returns to exact vengeance from well beyond the grave. What jump-starts the imagination is who, how, what, where and when. What dulls it all down are the several anachronisms in the plot.

If you want to go to Crewe by rail a century ago, would you have started out from Kings Cross? Would there have been a Tannoy announcement on the platform? Er, I think not. Where precisely is this mysterious and dangerous setting? East or west? And why – bearing in mind that this is a play within a play – does a lawyer with a secret to reveal, want to go and tell it to, of all people, a publicity-hungry young actor?

Perhaps it is better not to nit-pick, but to just bathe in the elaborate hokum, and to wallow in a good ghost story, engagingly told. And, of course, to earnestly hope that the Woman in Black is not looking over your shoulder...

At Cast, Doncaster, Until May 13.