The Complete Plays: The Woman In Black (1987)

This page contains production details for the world premiere of The Woman in Black at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round, Scarborough. In-depth details about the play and its association with the Stephen Joseph Theatre can be found at The Woman in Black section of the website here.
Production Details
Title:
Author:
New Play:

Venue:
Location:
Staging:
The Woman in Black
Stephen Mallatratt
Yes

Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round
Studio
End-stage
Original Work:
Author:

First performance:
Opening night:
Final performance:
The Woman in Black
Susan Hill

11 December 1987
11 December 1987
2 January 1988
Company Details
Director:
Lighting:
Sound:
Vision:
Design:

Stage Manager:
Robin Herford
Mick Thomas
Jackie Staines
Lesley Meade
Michael Holt

Duncan Lewis
Character
Arthur Kipps
The Actor
Actor
Jon Strickland
Dominic Letts
Why is this play significant?
The Woman in Black is 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 for it but it became 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, the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round 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.
○ 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 from Ars Poetica by Horace).
Links
All research for this page by Simon Murgatroyd. Image copyright: Scarborough Theatre Trust