Eel Marsh House stands tall, gaunt and isolated, surveying the endless flat saltmarshes beyond the Nine Lives Causeway, somewhere on England's bleak East Coast. Here Mrs Alice Drablow lived - and died - alone.
Young Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor, is ordered by his firm's senior partner to travel up from London to attend her funeral and sort through all her papers. His task is a lonely one, and at first Kipps is quite unaware of the tragic secrets which lie behind the house's shuttered windows. He only has a terrible sense of unease. And then, he glimpses a young woman with a wasted face, dressed all in black, at the back of the church during Mrs Drablow's funeral, and later, in the graveyard to one side of Eel Marsh House. Who is she? Why is she there? He asks questions, but the locals not only cannot or will not give him answers - they refuse to talk about the woman in black, or even to acknowledge her existence, at all. So, Arthur Kipps has to wait until he sees her again, and she slowly reveals her identity to him - and her terrible purpose.
The Woman In Black treads in the footsteps of the classic ghost story, following the tradition of Charles Dickens, M.R James, Henry James and Edith Wharton. It is not a horror story or a tale of terror, yet the events build up to a horrifying climax, combining the power and intensity of live theatre with the cinematic quality of film noir.
Running Time
2 hours 5 minutes
Address
Fortune Theatre
Russell Street
London
WC2B 5HH
Travel
Nearest Underground: Covent Garden
Turn Right from Covent Garden tube towards Covent Garden Plaza. Turn left around the Plaza and follow it round, taking the first left down Russell Street by The Royal Opera House. The Fortune Theatre is on Russell Street just past the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.
Bus Routes: 1, 4, 6, 9, 11, 13, 15, 68, 76, 171, 276, 188
Access
Wheelchair access is through the side exit on Crown Court. Wheelchair users should be accompanied by a helper and unfortunately there are no spaces for those who must stay in their chairs.
