Don’t worry if you scream during “The Woman in Black” coming to the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis from Oct. 8 to 26. A lot of people scream.
“It can be pretty scary,” says Antony Eden, the director for the show. “I don’t want to say I get a lot of pleasure out of it, but I get a lot of pleasure out of it. It’s a great thing when people have gone with the story to that extent that they’re terrified.”
Eden should know, the Brit starred in the show on London’s West End. The play ran there from 1989 until 2023, the second-longest running show in the West End’s history after Agatha Christie’s “Mousetrap.”
“Part of the longevity of the show is how it keeps you guessing,” Eden says. “Part of what we are trying to do is make you not quite sure what’s happening next, and turning up your expectations.”
“The Woman in Black” is a ghost story based on a 1983 novel of the same name by Susan Hill. It became a play when, in 1987 Robin Herford, a theatermaker in England, realized that he had a £5,000 surplus in his budget.
He decided to do an extra play at Christmas in his theater’s bar area, and Stephen Mallatratt, then the playwright in residence at Herford’s theater, suggested adapting “Woman in Black.”
With the small budget, Mallatratt transformed the 15-character book into a two-person play by coming up with the convention that the main character of the story, Arthur Kipp, had hired an actor to help him reenact a traumatic event from his past.
The show immediately sold out despite being small and low–budget.
“That’s another thing I love about this show,” Eden says. “It was made in 1987 on a shoestring budget, so it’s a very, very lo-fi show, and all the stagecraft that’s used are old, old theater tricks. There’s no spectacular animation, digital stuff. It’s all analog.”
So what makes it scary?
“It really works hard to engage the audience’s imagination,” Eden says. “It taps into everybody’s personal fears. As an audience member, it’s in your head. Where all good theater should be.”
“The Woman in Black” follows a classic Victorian ghost-story narrative, except for the play framing device. Arthur Kipps is a solicitor, and after Mrs. Drablow — a mysterious widow — dies, he goes to her estate to sort through her papers. While there, he swears he sees a figure in black that others assure him isn’t there, but in Mrs. Drablow’s house, he keeps making unsettling discoveries.
In the play, Kipps has written his memoir and hired an actor to play him in reenacting the story. Kipps plays all of the supporting characters. This framing gives the story an immediacy.
“It’s set to happen where it’s happening, i.e. the theater that you’re in,” says Eden. “So the whole auditorium becomes the theater, which is an exciting thing in itself, but add a ghost into the mix and it’s even more exciting.”
In St. Louis, David Acton, who has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company more than 20 times and has appeared on the show “Call the Midwife,” will play Kipps. James Byng, who made his debut on the West End at age 10 in “Oliver!” will play the young actor. Both of them also appeared in the original West End production. The roles are in repertory, which means that each night one of these actors has off, so Ben Porter, who can play either Kipps or the Actor, also stars in the show. He is a veteran of the National Theatre in London.
Eden is not just the director for the show, he’s a bit of a super fan. He saw “The Woman in Black” when he was 14 and he mounted a production of it at his school the following year.
“It was the first play I ever put on. I love this show,” Eden enthuses.
His only memory of that early show is that it was two 15-year-olds playing the parts, but one of them was supposed to be old, so Eden’s co-star “had a tremendously bad gray wig on,” Eden says with a laugh.
Eden went on to become a horror-movie buff and stage actor.
In 2010 an actor friend connected Eden and Herford, who also directed the West End production and was looking for new actors.
Eden auditioned and went on to play the same role he’d played when he was 15 — the young Arthur Kipps — over 1,000 times.
Then 10 years ago, Eden became the associate director for the touring show. PW Productions, which produced the West End version, packed it up and took it around the world with Eden at the helm. He went to Japan, Australia, the United States and Canada with it.
“My Japanese is not good, so directing in Japan was an education,” he says with a laugh.
In fact, Eden, who will be in town only briefly with the show, is running more than one tour. “There’s a U.K. tour going on at the same time, which I’m actually rehearsing as well at the moment,” he says.
He doesn’t mind though, because he wants to bring the show to as many audiences as possible.
“It’s a beautiful play,” he says. “I think it’s surprisingly moving.”
He also says that it’s surprisingly funny, and that, too, adds to the terror.
“The more you get them laughing in the first act, the more they’re screaming in the second act.”
Stay up-to-date on what’s happening
Receive the latest in local entertainment news in your inbox weekly!
* I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
Rosalind Early | Post-Dispatch
Deputy features editor
Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily!
Your notification has been saved.
There was a problem saving your notification.
{{description}}
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Followed notifications
Please log in to use this feature
Log In
Don’t have an account? Sign Up Today