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What Is THE WOMAN IN BLACK All About? The Company Explains!
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Oct 29, 2022
Now playing at the McKittrick Hotel is the original production of long-running West End play The Woman In Black. What is the play all about? 'It's a play that makes you scream. It makes you laugh as well, but it makes you scream,' says star Ben Porter.
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0:00
The Woman in Black is a classic ghost story
0:08
It's a Christmas story but it works at any time a year. It transports you to a rarefied, lonely place
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It taps into people's fear and fascination with the supernatural. It has so many elements
0:23
We use the actors and the audience imagination to create different worlds and different characters
0:29
I end up playing seven different characters. I start off as a man of no imagination and frightened little fellow
0:36
and end up playing seven different parts. People scream. It's a play that makes you scream
0:42
And it makes you laugh as well, but it makes you scream. It started in a pub theatre on the East Coast of England
0:47
in the Christmas of 1987, to an audience of about 90 people
0:51
So essentially at the McKittrick, at an audience about 150, also in an English pub theatre
0:56
It's returning to its roots, and I've never seen it. in this context. This show started 31 years ago
1:01
in a small space just like this. So to take it back after all these years to its roots
1:07
and have to kind of reinvent it in a way to suit a smaller space
1:10
and to get that kind of reaction, it just made you think, yes, actually this is really going to work
1:15
The McKittrick Hotel is the most extraordinary venue I think I've ever been to in my life by far
1:21
And here we are. We're so lucky to be here. It's amazing. And the atmosphere here
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the couple of run-throughs that we've done, when we had friends and family and it's great
1:31
The intimacy, it's, you know, the low ceiling, it's, and the bar on one side
1:37
There's an intimacy and a claustrophobia about it, which is, it's just, it's so perfect for the play
1:45
It draws everybody into it. It brilliant absolutely brilliant Ben Porter has been with this show a number of times David Acton has also done the show They never performed together which is why it exciting for them in New York
1:58
David's been an actor with the Royal Shakespeare Company for many years, and Ben started his career with the National Theatre in London
2:03
So we've got two very fine actors playing the parts who've never been with each other before
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and are now discovering the space, they're discovering how to work with each other, they're discovering how the rhythm of the script works
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and as we move towards the press night of the McKittrick you can see them actually beginning to really relish it
2:20
And then working so closely with one other actor. Normally you're in a cast, I mean most of the time
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you're in a cast with a bunch of people, which is great as well. But this is just the two of you
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And you're a double act and you've got a partnership. And it's very nice, you know, especially if you get on with each other
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which you always do because Robin, the director, is really good at casting people who are most likely to get on
2:42
It's like an arranged marriage. And it seems to work, so that's fun as well
2:49
What is it? Do you think that audiences love about the woman in black? I think it's just that
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I think they love the fact that, first of all, they love the fact that they're being frightened
2:57
and they're always more frightened than they think they're going to be. Because they think, well, how scary can a play be
3:02
You know, it's not like cinema, it's a play. Because we do all sorts of things, which absolutely ratcheted up
3:10
The tension builds, and then hearing them scream, for an actor is just, I sound a bit sadistic, but it's great fun
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And it's fantastic being on stage all the time. I mean, it's a play that it's so tightly written
3:21
that, you know, once we kick off and go, it's just the play carries you along
3:28
It's beautifully written, beautiful to play. I've done it. I've done it in London, and I've done it on tour
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so I've done 600 performances of it, and I will never ever tire of doing it
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It's an amazing piece, and it's amazing to play, and amazing to watch
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