‘Woman in Black’ Has Haunting Power

Onstage in the Old Globe Theatre’s “The Woman in Black” are just two performers and the spectral presence of the title. But the chiller story is told, as well, by the set, lighting and sound designers.

Stephen Mallatratt’s script, based on Susan Hill’s novel, concerns English solicitor Arthur Kipps, who wants to re-create, with the help of a young actor, a terrifying episode from Kipps’ life decades ago. His firm had sent him to settle the estate of a recently deceased widow, a recluse whose remote mansion in the marshes was accessible only by carriage at low tide.

The assignment, it turned out, left Kipps literally haunted, and he hopes that narrating his story to audiences will exorcise his ghost. The actor turns Kipps’ words into a script and then portrays him, while Kipps takes on the roles of peripheral characters.

It’s a tricky premise, and establishing it makes for a talky, slow and somewhat confusing beginning, especially with Keith Baxter having to downplay Kipps’ ability to act. Fortunately, Jared Reed effectively uses his actor’s voice and presence to enliven the early going.

Once into the involving plot, the two men vividly depict their roles, Reed as the increasingly baffled and transfixed young Kipps and Baxter as everyone from a carriage driver to an innkeeper. And they’re aided immeasurably by superb tech work and the deft direction of Patrick Garland, who moves the action around, even into the audience, and utilizes special effects well.

James Noone’s set provides a darkened theater, with a brick wall behind the proscenium stage, strategic pieces of furniture and a platform for the mansion’s second story. Ken Billington’s wonderfully varied lighting is virtually a character or two in itself, whether streaming from the side for eerie effect, projecting huge shadows on the back wall or spotlighting the woman’s apparition.

Likewise, Chris Walker’s sound brings to life a barking dog, a carriage ride (and crash) and the tormented scream of a woman who has lost her child. Noel Taylor provides the Victorian-era costuming, including the spirit’s deathly visage.

Kipps eventually uncovers the reasons for the dead woman’s obsession with revenge and why she subsequently follows him, but his attempted solution leads to a final horror. Regular followers of the genre, however, may see it coming.

This production reportedly is being primed for a possible opening at an off-Broadway house in New York, so it will be interesting to see if U.S. audiences--accustomed to getting their jolts from gory films like “Hannibal”--respond like those in England. “Woman in Black” has been running since 1989 in London’s West End, which seems hard to believe until you remember that the much-inferior “The Mousetrap” has been playing in that city since 1952. Oh, those Britons and their traditions.

* “The Woman in Black,” Old Globe Theatre, Balboa Park, San Diego. Tuesdays through Fridays, 8 p.m., Saturdays 2 and 8 p.m., Sundays 2 and 7 p.m. Ends March 18. $35-45. (619) 239-2255. Running time: 90 minutes.