Shrouded in mystery, Weston’s ‘Woman in Black’ twists time and reality

David Bonanno, left, and Lucas Dixon shape shift in this intriguing, spooky, time warped play ‘The Woman in Black.’ Photos by Owen Leavey.

By Cara Philbin
©2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC

The Weston Theater Company’s final theatrical offering of the season, The Woman in Black, has all the trappings of an old fashioned ghost story to get you in the mood for a spine-tingling Halloween.

Set on the melancholy shores of Victorian England, a settling of matters compels a man to recall his ongoing encounters with a ghostly woman dressed in black. Over the course of two acts, the audience learns horrifying truths about the woman’s life that ultimately changes the course of the man’s. (Hint: She was a scorned woman.)

How The Woman in Black is told is part of what makes it so spooky. Here in Weston, it is performed from a rural farm on an intimate stage with a moody, old-fashioned set. Like every good ghost story, The Woman in Black takes advantage of the opportunity to captivate its audience.

We first meet Mr. Kipps as a troubled, aging man tormented by hauntings that began when he was a young solicitor. Played by Weston favorite David Bonanno, Mr. Kipps hires an actor, played by Lucas Dixon, to help him examine his troubling experiences at Eel Marsh House, a late client’s seaside estate, in the belief that speaking of the horrors that consume him will finally exorcise them from his soul.

The first act is largely dedicated to building suspense,  obscuring the details about what happened to Kipps and instead investing in his relationship with the actor and their ragtag effort to use theater as a form of therapy. By intermission, their dynamic, which we can only presume centers on something truly horrific, is the only element for the audience to connect with, until the lingering secrets held by Mr. Kipps are slowly unveiled throughout the second act.

By the time the curtain rises for a second time, the performance has transitioned into a full re-enactment of the events at Eel Marsh House, but with a few key changes. Dixon, the actor, now plays a Young Kipps, while Bonanno re-emerges to play a rotating cadre of mysterious villagers who Kipps meets on his journey.

Drama, terror and a journey into the past make for spell-binding evening.

The way The Woman in Black strategically discloses information that is never truly reliable is part of what makes it so masterfully chilling.

After so much time bonding with these character identities, this abrupt shift from Bonanno to Dixon as Kipps is a jarring readjustment that clarifies the play-within-a-play device as a utility for the story. Uprooting the only sense of constancy unmoors the viewer from their sensibilities and prepares them to extend their sense of belief. By the time Dixon’s arrogant confidence of the first act disintegrates into uncanny fear of the mansion’s lurking presence, the audience has been conditioned to internalize his feelings of disorientation.

It’s when we learn about the purpose of Bonanno’s new roles that these narrative ambiguities suddenly seem ominously tactical. As the audience watches the sequence of villagers warn Young Kipps about Eel Marsh House, the foundations of reality begin to feel even shakier. Did Bonanno’s version of the older Kipps even exist? Do the villagers? Is Dixon still an actor playing a part or has something more sinister occurred?

That both Dixon and Bonanno so skillfully transition between their various roles further obscures the customs of the natural world, reinforcing this idea of an all-consuming haunting in which there are no rules. The result is an audience prepared to expect the unexpected,  as it witnesses the hauntings first-hand alongside a terrified Young Kipps.

Enhanced by vivid imagery by set designer Marcelo Martínez García, ascetic lighting by Yichen Zhou and chilling soundscapes by Evdoxia Ragkou, The Woman in Black bends notions of time, space and community for a chilling exploration of the difference between living and coming alive

The Woman in Black, directed by Jacob Basri and adapted by Stephen Mallatratt from a book by Susan Hill, is playing at Walker Farm through Oct. 20. The show runs for two hours with an intermission. Tickets are $25 to $79, and seats are selling quickly. Click here for tickets or contact the Weston box office at 802-824-5288.