I recently went to see the theatre production of The Woman In Black. It is of the thriller genre, however it is quite unique as a theatre production in the respect that there are only two characters (three including the woman in black herself, who never speaks and rarely appears on stage for more than a few seconds). So the whole story is set out and told by these two characters.
When I first found out about the lack of characters with speaking parts (you are told of other people within the story, however they aren't played by people) I was shocked and a little bit sceptical that a whole production, lasting about two hours, could work with only two people. I found it hard to believe that suspense and the enigma that is key to a thriller could be built up in an affective way.
However I was wrong, having seen the production has made me realise that you do not need a lot of characters on the stage to be able to create this feeling. Keeping the stage simple and not cluttering it with people or props made the audience concentrate on the plot in more depth and detail and you find that you aren't constantly being distracted by what someone else is doing on stage and so you notice small details which you may not have otherwise.
The plot
Below is a summary of the plot:
Eel Marsh House stands tall, gaunt and isolated, surveying the endless flat saltmarshes beyond the Nine Lives Causeway, somewhere on England's bleak East Coast. Here Mrs Alice Drablow lived - and died - alone. Young Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor, is ordered by his firm's senior partner to travel up from London to attend her funeral and then sort out all her papers. His task is a lonely one, and at first Kipps is quite unaware of the tragic secrets which lie behind the house's shuttered windows. He only has a terrible sense of unease. And then, he glimpses a young woman with a wasted face, dressed all in black, at the back of the church during Mrs Drablow's funeral, and later, in the graveyard to one side of Eel Marsh House. Who is she? Why is she there? He asks questions, but the locals not only cannot or will not give him answers - they refuse to talk about the woman in black, or even to acknowledge her existence, at all. So, Arthur Kipps has to wait until he sees her again, and she slowly reveals her identity to him - and her terrible purpose. (source: http://www.thewomaninblack.com/)
So...
This has got me thinking about my thriller opening sequence and I have decided that it would be a good idea to keep it quite simple, so that the audience aren't being distracted by things which are not essential to the story. There isn't a need for extravagance to engaged the audience. I feel that when I come to make my opening sequence I will be more prepared to keep the characters to a minimum and the scenery simple so that it isn't too busy and distracting.
When I first found out about the lack of characters with speaking parts (you are told of other people within the story, however they aren't played by people) I was shocked and a little bit sceptical that a whole production, lasting about two hours, could work with only two people. I found it hard to believe that suspense and the enigma that is key to a thriller could be built up in an affective way.
However I was wrong, having seen the production has made me realise that you do not need a lot of characters on the stage to be able to create this feeling. Keeping the stage simple and not cluttering it with people or props made the audience concentrate on the plot in more depth and detail and you find that you aren't constantly being distracted by what someone else is doing on stage and so you notice small details which you may not have otherwise.
The plot
Below is a summary of the plot:
Eel Marsh House stands tall, gaunt and isolated, surveying the endless flat saltmarshes beyond the Nine Lives Causeway, somewhere on England's bleak East Coast. Here Mrs Alice Drablow lived - and died - alone. Young Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor, is ordered by his firm's senior partner to travel up from London to attend her funeral and then sort out all her papers. His task is a lonely one, and at first Kipps is quite unaware of the tragic secrets which lie behind the house's shuttered windows. He only has a terrible sense of unease. And then, he glimpses a young woman with a wasted face, dressed all in black, at the back of the church during Mrs Drablow's funeral, and later, in the graveyard to one side of Eel Marsh House. Who is she? Why is she there? He asks questions, but the locals not only cannot or will not give him answers - they refuse to talk about the woman in black, or even to acknowledge her existence, at all. So, Arthur Kipps has to wait until he sees her again, and she slowly reveals her identity to him - and her terrible purpose. (source: http://www.thewomaninblack.com/)
So...
This has got me thinking about my thriller opening sequence and I have decided that it would be a good idea to keep it quite simple, so that the audience aren't being distracted by things which are not essential to the story. There isn't a need for extravagance to engaged the audience. I feel that when I come to make my opening sequence I will be more prepared to keep the characters to a minimum and the scenery simple so that it isn't too busy and distracting.
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