Who is The Woman in Black? San Diego's Globe Theatres, formerly the Old Globe Theatre, ponders that question with the Feb. 15 opening of the creepy mystery play from London. Currently in its 13th year in the West End, the thriller hopes to make the transition from California to New York City, although no time table for a transfer has yet been established.
The two-man drama is set in a theatre, where Arthur Kipps, a middle-aged solicitor, attempts to exorcise the ghosts of his past by paying an actor play them out. The actor, between conversations with Kipps in the present, becomes him in past, reliving a long-ago journey from London to the desolate mansion of an elderly recluse in the North. There, Kipps encounters the Woman in Black, a haunt obsessed with revenge for her dead child, and who pursues him for the rest of his life.
Chichester Festival Theatre artistic director and author Patrick Garland directs. Garland's many credits on both sides of the Atlantic include Forty Years On starring Sir John Gielgud, A Doll's House in London and New York, Broadway's My Fair Lady starring Rex Harrison, Kipling in London and New York and two Simon Callow projects, The Mystery of Charles Dickens and Chimes at Midnight.
Keith Baxter stars as Kipp. A New York and London veteran, he won the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Awards as Milo in Sleuth (a play he also performed in the UK), He also appeared on Broadway in A Man for All Seasons, A Meeting by the River, Corpse! and The Affair. As a playwright, he has written 56 Duncan Terrace, Cavell and Barnaby and the Old Boys.
Jared Reed is The Actor. He played in the Globe's As You Like It, directed by Stephen Wadsworth, and in the Roundabout Theatre's The Play's the Thing. Designing The Woman in Black are James Noone (sets), Noel Taylor (costumes), Ken Billington (lighting) and Chris Walker (sound). D. Adams is the stage manager.
The Woman in Black began Feb. 10 for a run through March 18. Tickets are $42-$25. The Globe Theatres are located in Balboa Park. For reservations, call (619) 239 2255. The Globe Theatres are on the web at http://www.theglobetheatres.org/.
