Christopher Gray sees a play whose success brings it to ever greater heights

The Woman in Black, at Oxford Playhouse until Saturday, is proving this theatre’s biggest money-spinner ever. Not a seat remained unsold for the week on Monday’s opening night. A waiting list exists for those hoping for returns.

All this is an excellent illustration of the precept that nothing succeeds like success. Stephen Mallatratt’s inspired adaptation of Susan Hill’s macabre novel, penned in Oxfordshire in 1983, has run for 25 years at London’s Fortune Theatre. This places it second in West End longevity only to... you know what.

The film version, starring Daniel Radcliffe, also makes the record books as the UK’s biggest-grossing horror movie. This, surely, has had a powerful influence in luring crowds to the touring production. That so many young people were screaming (and laughing) around me in the stalls on opening night is doubtless accounted for in Potter pulling power. Oh, and the fact that Hill’s novel is an A-level text.

Alas, rather a lot of them were coughing very loudly too, supplying a constant accompaniment to the action which was not conducive to the necessary suspension of disbelief. It says much for the professional skills of the actors that their performances appeared unaffected.

This is, of course, a two-person show, conceived on a small scale at Alan Ayckbourn’s Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough to fill the studio space during the panto season. Its director, Ayckbourn’s right-hand man Robin Herford, has remained at the helm ever since, a practised hand indeed.

As will be well known, the story deals with the horrors encountered by a young lawyer, Arthur Kipps, on a trip to a seaside village (and the spookily named, mist-laden Eel Marsh House) to sort out the affairs of a recently deceased old lady. Mallatratt’s clever framing device is to have Kipps (Malcolm James) acting out the tale late in his life in a bid to purge the nightmare from his system.

His younger self is played in the ensuing drama by an actor (Matt Connor), with the many other roles taken by the old man who, after an uncertain start, comes to show great versatility (as indeed does Mr James).

Though minimalist in concept, the play casts a powerful spell on the audience, with sound and lighting supplying key elements in the magic.

The Woman in Black
Oxford Playhouse
Until Saturday
01865 305305, oxfordplayhouse.com