On what it is like bringing ghosts to life
The Woman in Black has been running in the West End for 30 years. Did you anticipate this longevity when the show opened? Oh no, we thought it would run for six weeks.
It opened in Scarborough in 1988, because they had a pantomime on in the theatre and Alan Aykborn, who was the artistic director, wanted to have something to put into the studio theatre alongside it.
Stephen Mallatrat went on holiday and at the airport he picked up The Woman in Black.
He thought he could make this work on the stage. Then he wrote to me asking if he could adapt it.
Were you nervous about handing over your story to a new team? Not at all. The play is very true to the book and yet simultaneously very different by nature of being a piece of theatre.
What was it like the first time you saw your characters on stage?
The Woman in Black herself very much existed in my mind. I knew what she felt like, so it is very peculiar to feel her presence in a theatre.
The two gentlemen are such brilliantly developed characters and utilised so well by Stephen’s writing for the stage that they become quite different.
Every pair of actors bring something different to it.
Where did your idea for The Woman in Black come from?
I have always loved reading ghost stories but had realised that in recent years not a lot had been written.
People were writing horror, but horror is different to me. You can have a horror story that doesn’t have a ghost, whereas a ghost story could be horror but also could be unnerving in a different way or even heartbreaking.
I ended up making a list of the key elements I thought a good ghost story should have and worked from that.
I thought it should have atmosphere, lots of atmosphere, an isolated location and I was absolutely sure the ghost needed a reason to be there.
The Woman in Black came to me straight away – I wanted her to be a woman and of her period.
Then various things that I had found alarming as a child came back into my mind and I wanted to incorporate them including the image of the dusty, cobweb-covered nursery.
Why do you think we enjoy being scared?
It’s a very primitive instinct, to be frightened. However, the joy of a ghost story is it is just practice really, we are being frightened delightfully.
While we may jump and scream in the theatre, we know we are safe and can allow ourselves to be scared, which I think is essential. Perhaps it
Do you believe in ghosts?
I think I do, in a sense. I’ve never seen one but enough people I know have been in a place which emanates a sense of evil and have felt the urge to immediately get away from it.
Also, you always hear of dogs having that sense of something not being right, being spooked, and why would an animal make that up?
For lots of young people, The Woman in Black will be their first experience of live theatre. What do you advise they look out for?
Go into the theatre with an open mind and try to immerse yourself in the show. Allow yourself to imagine everything the show invites you to. ■ The Woman in Black is at Curve from January 20 to 25.