gcse drama woman in black essay

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The Woman in Black Review. The props and the general atmosphere that was created gave the stage and set a character of its own

DRAMA                                                                               Lydia George

The Woman in Black Review

On the 14 th  of September the Sexey’s School drama students went to The Fortune Theatre, London and saw the performance of ‘The Woman in Black’.  The play was riveting to watch and made the audience scream on more than one occasion; it developed a great sense of tension and created a high level of anxiety in the audience. The plot of the play explored the horror of drama to its bitter ends and combined the power and intensity of live theatre with some of the best effects from cinematic horror shows. Although it was performed by the majority of only two men, Michael Mears and Orlando Wells, it was easy to follow character changes and the swapping between different roles.

The props and the general atmosphere that was created gave the stage and set a character of its own as the story reached its climax. The colours of the stage were dismal and gloomy and really helped to ‘set the scene’ and added to the atmosphere.  Although there were not many stage props and they were quite basic, they were extremely effective; such as the wicker basket which was used to store paper files and a blanket. Props and how the characters used space made it easy to recognise the character’s emotions and see which character had what status; such as the use of a hat could give a higher status. Space on stage was used to a good advantage considering there wasn’t much of it and the actors awareness of that space really showed. The actors used the stage with familiarity and confidence and this enhanced the production greatly because it gave the audience great security.  An example of this would be right at the beginning when Mr. Kipps trips over some metal buckets when he is walking backwards.

The actors wore authentic late Victorian dress and costumes changed to suit changing characters with an open use of clothes rail.  The Actor wore a slim brown tie, a pinstriped suit, a white shirt with a waistcoat and the colours of these garments were in dark colours. The older man, Mr Kipps, became different characters by changing his costumes such as wearing different coats and hats, change from black suit, adding a scarf, wearing a brown trench coat and swapping a black hat from a brown hat. The costumes gave a good effect because they were all in dull, dismal colors and really complemented the sets period; they also added a sense of maturity to the characters.  

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The stage was split into two by a gauze which stretched from one side to the other when it was lit from front it became opaque and when it was lit from behind it became transparent. This meant that the gauze concealed the bedroom/nursery behind unopenable/locked door. The gauze also allowed the opportunity for backstage crew to change the set for example the nursery tidy to untidy in matter of minutes. The gauze added scare to the audience because it could flash between visible/concealment in moments.  The gauze had a ghostly effect and was a spooky grey.  It blended into the rest of the stage really well and was a good idea because it looked effective as a back drop but also hid the ‘second room’.

Behind the gauze there were steps, which were made to look like stairs on a house. This was an imaginative feature because there was no top floor but gave the effect that there was. The stage and props were very realistic and believable, which increased the horror and fear. On the CSL there was a door which was used to create suspense because you did not know what was behind it or what would come through it; the actors were really able to use it effectively. For instance when Mr. Kipps hears noises behind the door, he decides to go and see what it is and slowly creeps up to the door and suddenly it quickly swings open and causes the audience to jump.  

The cast showed a range of acting skills such as body language, facial epression and use of voice. The acting was believeable which made a clever story that was full of surprises and suspense, become real. The acting was very naturalistic. The majority of the play was acted by only two men and this meant they had to multi-role. This required experienced dramatic technique. Use of voice was played with and each character had a significantly different accent or way in which they spoke. The actors managed to define and exaggerate these differences so that characters each had their own identity in voice as well as how they looked. An example would be when Mr. Kipps does not understand how his acting is not very interesting, but when he gets given some reading glasses he really gets into his character and the acting of being a different person. Facial expressions helped back up the lines and acting.  

The Actors voice is fast, nervous, panicky, high pitched  which influences audience to be scared. His facial gestures show fear through wide eyes and mouth open an example of this would be when looking into the mist with confused eyes. His facial expressions also make the audience feel sorry for him when he is in the house through his silent nerves as his face stretches and frowns. The acting is naturalistic but also uses a sense of imagination an example of this would be when he pretended there was a dog in the marsh scene; he did this by bending down with his arms open.

The Narrator/Mr Kipps is convincible as he changes from these characters very effectively and believably; for example he changes his accents from a country accent to a city one. He also changes his movements as he changes character, an example of this would be for the old man he walks slower.

The actor who played ‘the woman in black’ didn’t appear much throughout the play, but this added to the whole feeling of suspense and drama because when she did appear it was scary.  If she had appeared more often the fear and spookiness she created amounst the audience would have disappeared. In my opinion, I think the dictector of the play had her on stage in just the right balance, because the blood-chilling effect wasn’t lost when she appeared and he left the audience wanting more – which is always a good way to end it in. Her costume and make-up was extremely scary but also very simple, she wore a plain black cloak and had a pale, wasted face with dark, shadowy eyes. The contrast of the pastey white and black eyes worked really well together.

The lighting was extremely effective because it was very naturalistic combined with dramatic lighting at some points during the story, although the stage didn’t have much light. When Mr. Kipps and the drama coach were in the theatre trying to improve the play, the lighting was very naturalistic but when some scary scenes came they were very dramatic-the lights would flash or go red; this use of light was effective. As the stage wasn’t lit up much it gave a really good effect of dusk.  This really increased the tension in the horror scenes such as the gauze created a spooky silhouette of the childs nursery and also when there was a blackout on the stage and the Mr Kipps turns on his tourch and the Woman in Black’s face is directly in the light of the tourch. On some occasions the light flashed and strengthened the anxiety of the expectations of the audience.

There was a use of blackouts which allowed actors to change characters effectively which added to believability for audience in imagining different characters an example of this would be when the changing of the Narrator to the Driver of horse and carriage. Dimmed Lighting was a constant theme throughout the play; the lighting would go very dark when anything haunting happened or anything ghostly was about to happen. As the stage continually went dark the audience learned to expect a scare which added to the build-up and suspense. The blackouts also acted as a cover which meant that the actors could creep onto stage unnoticed before making the intended sudden appearance. A spotlight was also used which focussed light as a narrow beam of light to follow movement of actor this focussed the attention on the actor over the narrator for example in the scene where actor in bed.

The sound effects were used appropriately and helped build the tension by creating apprehension. The sound effect of the horse and carriage and the scream was used as a really good motif, more so it made the audience scream themselves hearing the screams in the sound track than the actual acting. The effects of the lighting and sound had a huge impact on the whole performance and gave just the right atmosphere whether it was gripping, eerie, spooky or just normal.  The series of recorded sounds such as the blood-curdling screams were effective and sudden which were used to scare and shock the audience. The horses pulling cart which were heard before scream made the audience learn to associate this with impending scream which added to the suspense because they knew a ‘scare’ was approaching but they just couldn’t work out when. In some cases the sound legitimise the statement of location such as in the graveyard the sound of ravens was associated to haunting atmosphere of the scary location which made it realistic for audience and added tension. Build-up to scary moment The heartbeat sounds prepared the audience for a scare but they didn’t know when or what was going to happen, this built to the  atmosphere and was hugely effective.

On the gauze at the back of the stage there was a projection of pictures to help the audience recognise where the characters were meant to be at any one time in the play. For instance, when they were in the church there was a cross projected on the gauze and when Mr. Kipps went to Mrs Drablow’s house there was a picture of an old looking, creepy mansion projected on the gauze. I think that the projector was a clever idea because it reflected what was being performed on stage.

The play had a good structure and the tempo was up beat. In the second half of the play one of the most significant climaxes was when Mr Kipps was lying in bed, there was a dim light, an errie silence and the tension was dense, then suddely the noise of creaking from rocking chair filled the stalls. This made the audience anxious and nervous because it was completely unexpected and built a lot of tension. As not much was happening, it seemed to be calm but it actually created the ‘less is more’ effect and the chair kept rocking building the climax to a high.  The first part of the play was intentially boring to really emphasises the and climax the events that happen in the second part.

The play had an interesting, fast pace story line with lots of twists and suprises which made it all the more exiting to watch. The story was very unpredictable and at moments surprised you, when you least expexted it. The end of the play was really unexpected and ends in a cliff hanger, which leaves the audience to imagine a personal ending for themseleves.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the performance the mistery, scaryness and clever plot really grabbed me; the whole atmosphere felt great to be part of.  The acting and dramatic effects created lots of suspence and increased many heart rates. I went into theatre thinking ‘how could live drama scare me?’, this play has completely changed my veiws on horror in theatre and anyone who thinks the same should definitely take a trip and go see this blood-chilling, spine-tingling, horror-exploring performance.

Document Details

• Author Type Student
• Word Count 2094
• Page Count 4
• Subject Drama
• Type of work Coursework

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Woman In Black GCSE Drama Notes

Subject: Drama

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

19 June 2018

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Woman in black notes that I used for my GCSE’s they really helped.

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