The Woman In Black Theatre Essay

The cleaning lady In Black Theatre EssayThe Woman In Black belongs to the chivalric genre. The genre was acquired by Horace Walpole, He wrote The fastness of Otranto which was the precise first gothic novel which was written in 1764. The mediaeval genre normally includes Isolated Places, such as the ho pulmonary tuberculosis Arthur cincture in, Supernatural creatures, Such as the ghost Woman in Black, Damsels in Distress such as Arthur at the end of the play when he has had enough of the haunting.The woman in black is a terrifying gothic play. Stephen Mallatratt, the playwright achieves this by writing an effective mise-en-scene including setting, lighting, props, sound, the text, and stage directions for actors. These all liquify together and stool a nerve shredding experience.A technique that Stephen Mallatratt uses to create a scary experience is lighting. For example, when the sound of the cot and trap was compete on that point was a black out. The black out made it d aunting because no body knew what was happening and this created a lot of anxiety. The hurly burly was very loud and it was threatening, the audience didnt know what to do because you couldnt see anything so you were set up through the torment of being in the pitch black audition to a minor cry. An new(prenominal)wise time when lighting was utilise to create a terrifying effect is when Jerome and Arthur were in the church at the funeral of Ms Drablow. The lighting was apply to present a cross and a stain glass window. This was very Gothic, and creates an edgy atmosphere because the audience didnt know if something was spill to pop out, the only light was from the cross and window, which is very creepy.The lighting is in like manner used in a clever way. When the lights hit the curtain it open(a) a whole Childs playroom. Its bloodcurdling to take because until the lights where used, the audience couldnt see the other room. The audience dont know how it got there and what was going to happen.Another technique used is Sound. Sound is used throughout the play, and its a major part in creating a nerve shredding experience. The sound is used for ghostly encounters or the swearing of the child screaming when hes drowning. Stephen Mallatratt also uses volume to make the sound scarier. When the child is drowning it starts off reasonably quiet and then it gets deafening, giving the effect the pony and trap is getting nearer, and then suddenly the child starts screaming. It makes other pile scream because theres a black out and a loud cry. The use of sound and lighting combined makes the play truly chilling to watch and hear.Sound contri furthered to the gothic atmosphere because a lot of the time the noise was sudden. The audience do not expect to hear children cry or other spooky noises so its very scary to hear. Sound is used to create suspense by making the noises start at a quite level but then reaching a louder to a greater extent nerve shattering sou nd, this happens when the pony and trap are moving, this also could render distance, the further away the quieter the noise, the closer it is the louder the noise.Stephen Mallatratt uses only 3 actors, the actor, Kips and the Woman in Black. I think Stephen Mallatratt uses only these 3 people because using more than actors could take the emphasis they have already built up away. For example, when roamer runs off and gets stuck in the mud and the actor goes to pull him out. During this the real Arthur Kipps is stand up on stage explaining whats happening while the actor is showing the actions. At the moment were the tension breaks, the real Arthur Kipps, changes from narrating to acting as Keckwick. In my opinion, if there was a change of actor the whole scene and all the tension they had created would be lost. The way they do this is nerve shredding because its so weird how the actors quarter just change the characters in short amount of time.Stephen Mallatratt gets the actors to use incompatible tones of voice, facial expression, coats, habits and many more to portray change of character. An example of when he portrays this is in the first scene when Arthur Kipps is acting as Tomes. Tomes has a snivel so when Arthur Kipps is acting as him he makes sure the sniff occurred all(prenominal) twenty seconds. This made the audience know that he was acting as a different character. This is effective because we know that its the same person but its intresting to see the ability of the actor when he/she changes there facial expressions, voices and other factors.Overall I think Stephen Mallatratt did a good job at terrifying everyone within the theatre, the parts when everyone screamed where mainly because of the lighting and the sound. If there werent these 2 factors I doubt the play would have been as effective as it was. I personally enjoyed the play and how it affected me, I wasnt expecting to be scare but I was which proves how the light and sound is eff ective.