Woman in Black... a bit Grey!

At Thoughttree we're Susan Hill fans -  and so grabbed the chance last week to see the West End touring production of #The Woman in Black at the #Alhambra, Bradford. The production made good use of Hill's prose, and neat work of simple staging using stool, storage trunk and clothes rack (particularly liked the carriage and horse!)

But oh, the Woman in Black. She was perfect - horribly scary - in her 'unrealised' form, visible only as an indistinct shadow of black - hairs on my arms stood on end. Trouble was, when she burst through the stage curtain for the climactic moment of ghostly revenge, she resembled the Wicked Witch of the West a little too closely for serious theatre: the impulse was to laugh - and several in the audience did. Was it lighting, or was her face a Wizard of Oz green?

Two things:

1) Less is often more!
2) If you find yourself laughing when you know you should be immersed in a moment of serious theatre, the production has failed.

Take note, #StephenMallatratt!

Coming up...

We're out in the styx for the summer season... coming up is our latest half day workshop: Putting Poetry into Prose. We'll be exploring how war writing can use sympathetic, or pastoral imagery to convey its message of horror. We'll also be experimenting with imagery in our own writing. Want to know more?

When: Saturday, 6 June, 10 am - 12.30
Where: Hotham Village Hall

Should be a good one!