There is a fog descending upon the Presentation House Theatre, and it has nothing to do with the inclement weather we’ve been experiencing as of late. Instead it is a mist of the spectral kind and, like all spooky goings on, it is a blink and you’ll miss it affair.
After its successful stint at the Jericho Arts Centre in February, spine-tingling theatre show The Woman In Black has returned for a showing on the North Vancouver stage. The show runs every evening until Oct. 31, making it a sure-fire route to squeezing those final screams in before Halloween is bid farewell to for another year.
A long favourite of theatre-goers all around the world, it shouldn’t come as much surprise the thriller has been reprised for a second time this year. As the second longest running play in the history of the famed West End theatre district, only bested by The Mousetrap, it has amassed more than 10 million viewers in London alone.
Earlier this year the West End production closed, giving its final performance after 33 years. That means the North Vancouver iteration, by CLASSical ACT Collective and put together with Famous Artists Limited, is offering something that West End theatres no longer can, a rare and honourable feat for local theatre.
The reason audiences can’t get enough of the white-knuckle ride, said its director and co-star Bernard Cuffling, is simple.
“People love to be entertained, and this show does exactly that.”
British-born Vancouver actor Cuffling, a stalwart on the Vancouver theatre scene, will be reprising his role as Arthur Kipps for the seventh time, alongside co-star Aidan Wright.
Cuffling said he was always a fan of Dame Susan Hill’s book – “wonderful writing, wonderful images” – and has loved all iterations of the show. He returns to performing in the show time and time again because it is “always a challenge and an adventure every night,” he said.
“It has been a crowd-pleaser in London for 33 years, and has had countless productions. If you care for solid entertaining theatre, you will not be disappointed,” he said.
For those still to be acquainted with the edge-of-your-seat production, The Woman in Black is a traditional ghostly tale set in early 20th-century England. It follows Cuffling’s aging solicitor Arthur Kipps as he employs a young actor to aid him in recounting a particularly traumatic experience once had in a North Yorkshire estate. As the two men delve deeper into their performance, ghostly goings on from the past re-emerge.
Cuffling said he loves the show because it is “truly a good story,” with much of its irresistible allure down to the plot’s gradual reveal. It is not until the show’s final closing moments that the audience is let in on the show’s secret.
It is, he said, like “a terrific whodunnit.”
For tickets, visit www.phtheatre.org or call the theatre’s Box Office at (604) 990-3474.
Mina Kerr-Lazenby is the North Shore News’ Indigenous and civic affairs reporter. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
