The Woman In Black (1987)
In-depth details about the play and its significance to theatre in the round in Scarborough can be found at The Woman in Black section of the website here.Author:
New Play:
Venue:
Location:
Staging:
First performance:
Opening night:
Final performance:
New Play:
Venue:
Location:
Staging:
First performance:
Opening night:
Final performance:
Stephen Mallatratt
Yes
Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round
Studio
End-stage
11 December 1987
11 December 1987
2 January 1988
Yes
Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round
Studio
End-stage
11 December 1987
11 December 1987
2 January 1988
Director:
Lighting:
Sound:
Vision:
Design:
Stage Manager:
Lighting:
Sound:
Vision:
Design:
Stage Manager:
Robin Herford
Mick Thomas
Jackie Staines
Lesley Meade
Michael Holt
Duncan Lewis
Mick Thomas
Jackie Staines
Lesley Meade
Michael Holt
Duncan Lewis
Character
Arthur Kipps
The Actor
Arthur Kipps
The Actor
Actor
Jon Strickland
Dominic Letts
Jon Strickland
Dominic Letts
Why is this play significant?
The most successful non-Ayckbourn play to have originated in Scarborough. This is an adaptation of Scarborough-born writer Susan Hill's novella, The Woman in Black. Adapted by Stephen Mallatratt as a low-budget piece for two actors, there were very few expectations of it. The production was a word-of-mouth hit and opened in London in 1989 where it would run until 2023 - the second longest running play in the West End after The Mousetrap. Notoriously, despite its phenomenal success, theatre in the round in Scarborough did not benefit from the royalties which would normally have come from a West End transfer due to an issue with the original contract.Notes
○ The Woman In Black was adapted from Susan Hill's novella by Stephen Mallatratt; Susan Hill was born in Scarborough.
○ The Woman In Black has its world premiere at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round, Scarborough, been performed around the world. It has been in the West End continuously since 1988 and is one of the longest and most successful plays in the West End; the West End production is still - as of writing in 2014 - directed by Robin Herford with designs by Michael Holt.
○ Although The Woman In Black premiered at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The World and has gone onto huge international success, the Scarborough venue received little of the financial benefit which would be expected. A mistake when the contracts were originally drawn up meant the theatre did not receive the normal recompense for a transfer to the West End; in Alan Ayckbourn's biography Grinning At The Edge, the author Paul Allen noted the theatre was 'limited to a percentage of Stephen Mallatratt's royalties up to a grand total of £5,000." Ordinarily, a theatre would have expected to make much more from such a successful play.
○ The original production began the tradition that the actor playing the 'woman in black' is not directly named in the programme, posters or in advertising. In the original production, the staging credits featured 'Vision: Lesley Meade' after the listing for the Sound Designer. It was not an inaccurate credit given her role as the ghostly vision in the play. Elsewhere in the programme, the biography for Lesley Meade is carried separate from the other biographies under the title: 'Vanae Fingentur species, tamen ut Pes, et Caput uni Reddantur formae"; a quote famously featured on the title page of Horace Walpole's classic gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto; it translates as “Idle fancies shall be shaped so that neither foot nor head can be assigned to a single shape”).
○ The Woman In Black has its world premiere at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round, Scarborough, been performed around the world. It has been in the West End continuously since 1988 and is one of the longest and most successful plays in the West End; the West End production is still - as of writing in 2014 - directed by Robin Herford with designs by Michael Holt.
○ Although The Woman In Black premiered at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The World and has gone onto huge international success, the Scarborough venue received little of the financial benefit which would be expected. A mistake when the contracts were originally drawn up meant the theatre did not receive the normal recompense for a transfer to the West End; in Alan Ayckbourn's biography Grinning At The Edge, the author Paul Allen noted the theatre was 'limited to a percentage of Stephen Mallatratt's royalties up to a grand total of £5,000." Ordinarily, a theatre would have expected to make much more from such a successful play.
○ The original production began the tradition that the actor playing the 'woman in black' is not directly named in the programme, posters or in advertising. In the original production, the staging credits featured 'Vision: Lesley Meade' after the listing for the Sound Designer. It was not an inaccurate credit given her role as the ghostly vision in the play. Elsewhere in the programme, the biography for Lesley Meade is carried separate from the other biographies under the title: 'Vanae Fingentur species, tamen ut Pes, et Caput uni Reddantur formae"; a quote famously featured on the title page of Horace Walpole's classic gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto; it translates as “Idle fancies shall be shaped so that neither foot nor head can be assigned to a single shape”).
Links
All research for this page by Simon Murgatroyd.