The Woman in Black runs until November 20. Photos by Anne Hudson.
Last week of performances Closes Sunday, November 20
Unanimously acclaimed by the critics and now in its 20th year in the West End, The Woman In Black combines the power and intensity of live theatre with the cinematic quality of film noir.
Proud and solitary, Eel Marsh House surveys the windswept reaches of the salt marshes beyond Nine Lives Causeway. Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor, is summoned to attend the funeral of Mrs Alice Drablow, the house’s sole inhabitant, unaware of the tragic secrets which lie hidden behind the shuttered windows. It is not until he glimpses a wasted young woman, dressed all in black, at the funeral, that a creeping sense of unease begins to take hold, a feeling deepened by the reluctance of the locals to talk of the woman in black – and her terrible purpose. Years later, as an old man, he recounts his experiences to an actor in a desperate attempt to exorcise the ghosts of the past. The play unfolds around the conversations of these two characters as they act out the solicitor’s experiences on Eel Marsh all those years ago.
Based on the novel by Susan Hill.
The Woman in Black is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.
Generously sponsored by Pasta Vita and King Family Eye Care.
Cast:
Steven L. Barron * (The Actor)
Steven L. Barron* is very pleased to be returning to the Ivoryton Playhouse. He was last seen on the Ivoryton stage in the 2010 production of Driving Miss Daisy. Steve is a regular performer at the Centenary Stage Company in New Jersey, where he has been seen in such shows as You May Go Now, A Laughing Matter, Quartermaine’s Terms, Sight Unseen, Tartuffe, and While the Sun Shines. Steve has also appeared in Good Evening and Moonlight and Magnolias with the Sarasota based Florida Studio Theatre. In New York Steve has appeared in The Bothers Karamazov at LA Mama and Lion Taming in Miami with the Medicine Show. Steve’s motion picture debut The Stick-up Kids was recently screened at the Peachtree Film Festival in Atlanta. He has also appeared in the ESPN documentary The Dirt. Also look for Steve this fall in the new HBO series Boardwalk Empire. Steve has been acting professionally for over twenty years all over the country in such diverse productions as Art, Arcadia, The Glass Menagerie, and Moon Over Buffalo. Steve lives in Metuchen, NJ with his wife of 19 years Cathy and his two dogs Dottie and Dutch.
Ian Lowe * (Kipps)
Ian Lowe* is making his Ivoryton Playhouse debut! New York: Feste in 12th Night (Sonnet Rep), NY Premiere of The Nosemaker’s Apprentice (Brick). Select Regional: My Fair Lady (Capital Rep), Buddy (Riverside Theatre & Arts Center of Coastal Carolina), June Moon (Dorset Theatre Festival), Dirty Blonde (Penobscot Theatre Maine), Leo in The Producers (Seven Angels Theatre & New Bedford Festival Theatre), Ernst in Cabaret (Arts Center of Coastal Carolina), Pump Boys & Dinettes (Virginia Musical Theatre & Porthouse Theatre), Sleuth (Forestburgh Playhouse), among others. Ian attended Yale University and is a proud member of Actors’ Equity. www.theianlowe.com
Directed by: Maggie McGlone-Jennings
Stage Manager: TRick Jones *
Set Design: Tony Andrea
Lighting Design: Doug Harry
Costume Design: Vicki Blake
Sound Design: Tate Burmeister
* member of Actors Equity
One of the most terrifying live theatre experiences – ever!
Ian Lowe and Steven Barron star in The Woman In Black.
The Woman in Black by Stephen Mallatratt Based on the novel by Susan Hill at the Ivoryton Playhouse
As the nights are drawing in and Halloween is in the air, who doesn’t love a good, old-fashioned ghost story? Especially a ghost story told on the stage of a 100 year old theatre. Well, you’re in luck! The Ivoryton Playhouse is presenting Stephen Mallatratt’s brilliant adaptation of Susan Hill’s classic chiller The Woman in Black from November 2 – 20.
Unanimously acclaimed by the critics and now in its 23rd year in London’s West End, The Woman In Black is a terrifying trip through time into a tragic and ghostly world where the horrors of the supernatural combine with the power and intensity of live theatre to send shock waves through the audience with splendid thrills and chills.
The Woman In Black was first performed at the Theatre-By-The-Sea in Scarborough in 1987. The original production received rave reviews, paving the way for future productions throughout England. It reached the West End in 1989 where it celebrated its 9000th performance in June of this year.
Steven Barron as The Actor
‘The most brilliantly effective spine chiller you will ever encounter…if you haven’t seen this show yet you are missing a treat’ Daily Telegraph
Set on a lonely English moor, on an isolated causeway, the story has as its hero one Arthur Kipps, an up-and-coming young solicitor who has come north to attend the funeral and settle the estate of Mrs. Alice Drablow of Eel Marsh House. The routine formalities he anticipates give way to a tumble of events and secrets more sinister and terrifying than any nightmare: the rocking chair in the nursery of the deserted Eel Marsh House, the eerie sound of pony and trap, a child’s scream in the fog, and, most dreadfully, and for Kipps most tragically, the woman in black.
The Woman In Black is both a brilliant exercise in atmosphere and controlled horror and a delicious spine-tingler – proof positive that that neglected genre, the ghost story, isn’t dead after all.
Ian Lowe as Kipps
Directed by Maggie McGlone Jennings, the show features Steve L. Barron*, who was last seen in Ivoryton in Driving Miss Daisy, and Ian Lowe*, who is making his Ivoryton debut. Maggie is a veteran director has been seen on the Ivoryton stage in Moon Over Buffalo and Steel Magnolias, but this will be her directorial debut here. Set design is by Tony Andrea, lighting design by Doug Harry, sound by Tate R. Burmeister and costumes by Vicky Blake.
The Woman in Black opens on November 2nd and runs November 20th for 3 weeks. Performance times are Wednesday and Sunday matinees at 2pm. Evening performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30pm, Friday and Saturday at 8pm.
Tickets are $40 for adults, $35 for seniors, $20 for students and $15 for children and are available by calling the Playhouse box office at 860-767-7318 or by visiting our website at www.ivorytonplayhouse.org (Group rates are available by calling the box office for information.) The Playhouse is located at 103 Main Street in Ivoryton.
Members of the press are welcome at any performance. Please call ahead for tickets.
* member of Actors Equity
Photos by Anne Hudson.