woman in black

WOMAN IN BLACK

The stage of the performance 'woman in black' was very basic has it only had minimal props such has a basket and two chairs which was used for more than one thing e.g. at one point in the play the basket is used has a horse and carriage. This Forces the audience to use the imagination which is very Brecht. Also the use of minimal props forces us has an audience to imagine the set ourselves which also prevents us from getting emotionally attached to the characters.

Later on you find that there is also a backstage with a few more props which helps show the location they are in. (which in this case an old house). This was very effective staging has it helped the illusion of thinking they was actually in the house. The layout of the set allowed the play to flow at different paces which raised the tension to make the jump scares even bigger, e.g. when the Actor playing has Arthur Kipps hears a noise which leads to a door with nothing but the spot light focused on it the slow pace of it sets the tension high and then in a quick turn of pace (everything happening in a flash) a loud scream and the door flying open makes everyone jump.

The Fact that there is only three characters (The Actor, Arthur Kipps and The Woman In Black) makes this performance very Breachtian has this called for multi-role-play by Arthur kipps who changed roles throughout the performances Which alienated the audience and didn't allow us the audience get attached to a character and made us aware that we was watching a play.  To alienate the Audience even more an make them aware they was watching a play in a play they did everything on the stage e.g. getting changed and setting up the stage, But kept it at a level where we was still aware of the main storyline. The effect of the characters going in and out of the story constantly reminds us that we are watching a play and made us believe that the woman in black is not real. This also gives the audience a false sense of security has we don't know whether to believe that the woman in black is real or not. This also made the woman in black unpredictable has no one known in the audience when she would show up this also helped build up the tension.

The audience are once again forced to use their imagination when spider the dog is introduced as there is not a real dog on stage. Another effective technique used in this play is when Arthur kipps describe the scene as the actor performed this. This technique can also relate to the scene when Spider is introduced because without the description none of the audience would have a clue what’s going on and they wouldn't be able to imagine what’s going on and the illusion will be spoiled.

Throughout the play the lighting was dark and scary this was used to effectively make the audience jump on the edge of their seats and build the tension. Their wasn't many points within the play where it looked light, nice and calm. This added effects such has background noise was there to set the scene and give the audience an idea of what was going on. A good example of this is when the carriage is going down the road and  you can ear the noise of the horse trotting along the rode than you hear things breaking and a woman screaming. So just through noise the audience new what was happening It made the audience imagine a horror scene which it was trying to get across, and this left the audience knowing how dark this play is.

Personally i thought the actors was great and they told the story of the "woman in black" in a dark evil way and it was effective has most of the left shaking in their boots. Arthur Kipps was great in the way he made me believe he was all these different characters and not just this one character trying to be lots of different character. Both actors showed the emotion in a effective way the audience could see how they was feeling by the way they handled certain situations. e.g. when The actor (playing has Kipps) was spending the night in the old house  he showed how scared he was by the way he paced around the house.

 Overall I think the performance was great  the change in the pace and the tension throughout left me on the edge of my seat. and I found it really effective by the way they did a play in a play. But I believe that the woman in black could of done more with the audience e.g. walked around the seats while she had no part in the scene this would of raised the tension  and maid it ten times more scary.

The techniques used throughout was very Brecht which alienated the audience and left them thinking what they have just watched. This also helped raise the tension  and make the atmosphere more tense.



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