The Woman In Black
Her Majesty's Theatre
Wed 30th August

A spine chilling two-handed thriller of a play, 'The Woman In Black' is the latest vehicle for Australian actor John Waters to stretch out and show off his versatility. It probably also gets him out of the studio where he's been ensconced for some time as the grumpy yet brilliant resident surgeon on the Australian TV drama 'All Saints'.

I've always liked Waters for his understated dedication to his roles; he makes them look easy to know and easy to like, even some of his less lovable character, and when he added a new dimension many years ago when he took on John Lennon's life story with 'Looking Through A Glass Onion' I felt him to be one of the very best all round actors this country has produced. He really hasn't done that many small cast performances though, and 'The woman In Black' seems likely to tax him to the limit. After all, he does play seven different roles in this darkly Gothic adaptation of a Susan Hill novel which has been a smash hit in London's West End for the past fifteen years.

"It can be pretty hard work every night, because I'm putting a lot into it," agrees Waters, and he adds diplomatically, "the audiences make it as much as the performance itself because it's one of those deeply... emotional pieces of theatre. By that I mean everyone seems to get swept up in the emotion of the story, and that heightens the dark and scary aspects of it.

"It really is one of those performances which come along only every so often and you think 'I could really make a go of this'," he offers, sounding confident but not exactly relaxed, as we discuss this adaptation for the stage by Stephen Mallatratt.

Water's young sidekick in the play is television actor Brett Tucker, who plays Arthur Kipps, a young lawyer, is sent from the city to a tiny village on the East coast of England to see to the estate of an elderly woman, Mrs Alice Drablow, just deceased. Attending her funeral, Kipps encounters a young woman - dressed in black - but the villagers deny she was even there. The mystery begins to unfold, and the action is centred around the spooky setting of Eel Marsh House.

"Brett's just wonderful to work with because he has the right amount of wide-eyed innocence about his character. He can make some of the slightly weird stuff seem more believable, and this is one of those suspension of disbelief plays. I mean, most of what you see is suggestive; it's supernatural but we're grasping for a logical explanation to it, and so too is the audience. That's what keeps the tension up in the piece. Brett is really good in helping that building of the tension which everyone feels."

In fact, 'The Woman In Black' is something of a play within a play, where Waters plays an older version of Arthur Kipps who engages The Actor (Tucker) to help him better relate to family and friends an experience which happened to him as a much younger man. The Actor sees a wider audience for the story which unfolds and takes the mantle of the lead role upon himself, leaving the older Kipps to play the other roles. Confused?

"Well, of course, that's the nature of the thriller and a chiller," laughs Waters. "All becomes revealed at the end, but there are no short cuts to the answers in a play such as this. Yes, it's complex, but it's all in a good night's entertainment."

Naturally, the spectral woman (or is she?) holds the key to the mystery.

Alex Wheaton


'The Woman In Black' plays at Her Majesty's Theatre from Wed 30 Aug