Our Year 7 cohort shared a wonderful, if tense, afternoon at The Liverpool Playhouse on Wednesday to enjoy a matinée performance of the renowned and ever-popular The Woman in Black. Mrs Lea, Head of English, notes: “having seen the performance once many years ago, it was every bit as chilling as I recall”.
The Woman in Black is one of the UK’s longest-running and most successful productions in the history of London’s West End. This touring production, opening at the Liverpool Playhouse this week before moving onto Cambridge, was a gripping performance which had pupils’ nerves very much on edge. There were some wonderful examples of the pupils supporting one another at moments in the play when the tension became just too much!
Pupils commented: “It was thrilling because you never knew what was coming next”; “It was full of excitement – every second there was a surprise”!
Seated in the Gallery, pupils enjoyed excellent views of all aspects of the production, which used minimal casting and staging to achieve a truly dramatic outcome. However, no amount of theatrical minimalism, nor distance to the stage, could ensure that pupils were exempt from the jump-scares and screams of particularly tense moments – quite the contrary, as it turned out! It was a brilliant afternoon for all concerned, and as another pupil said, “I would recommend you go and see it”. You have been warned…
