The Woman in Black - Fortune Theatre / UK & Ireland tour

[Jon]

Aug 12, 2022 19:51:42 GMT anthony said:

The programme claims record bookings since reopening following Covid. Which is no surprise really - Woman in Black is on a couple of exam boards and is regularly taught at KS3, so it's obviously surviving on school visits during term time. I'm a teacher and after the autumn term, there was a lot of emphasis on enrichment trips following 2 years of having no trips at all.
Genuinely around 100 in the entire theatre yesterday. 

I'm surprised The Woman in Black is exam material, doesn't strike me as something you'd study unlike say with Blood Brothers which has a social class element that can be studied. Is BB still on the syllabus?

[Jan]

Aug 12, 2022 20:14:30 GMT Jon said:

Aug 12, 2022 19:51:42 GMT anthony said:

The programme claims record bookings since reopening following Covid. Which is no surprise really - Woman in Black is on a couple of exam boards and is regularly taught at KS3, so it's obviously surviving on school visits during term time. I'm a teacher and after the autumn term, there was a lot of emphasis on enrichment trips following 2 years of having no trips at all.
Genuinely around 100 in the entire theatre yesterday. 

I'm surprised The Woman in Black is exam material, doesn't strike me as something you'd study

It used to be on the syllabus for GCSE Drama and so the emphasis was on the play structure, staging effects, and so on.

[anthony]

Aug 12, 2022 20:14:30 GMT Jon said:

Aug 12, 2022 19:51:42 GMT anthony said:

The programme claims record bookings since reopening following Covid. Which is no surprise really - Woman in Black is on a couple of exam boards and is regularly taught at KS3, so it's obviously surviving on school visits during term time. I'm a teacher and after the autumn term, there was a lot of emphasis on enrichment trips following 2 years of having no trips at all.
Genuinely around 100 in the entire theatre yesterday. 

I'm surprised The Woman in Black is exam material, doesn't strike me as something you'd study unlike say with Blood Brothers which has a social class element that can be studied. Is BB still on the syllabus?

Blood Brothers is still an option for Modern Texts. Something silly (literally around 85% of schools) go for An Inspector Calls, however. 

Woman in Black (novel) is still on the literature curriculum for 2 of the exam boards. For drama, Woman in Black (as in the play) isn't on any exam boards at the moment but there is a section of the exam based on live theatre production, so I imagine Woman in Black is probably a really popular choice for students in London and the surrounding counties for that section of the exam as it offers stability for schools. 

[anita]

The book really has a scary atmosphere. I once lent it to someone who liked horror stories & it got to her.

[anthony40]

Aug 12, 2022 16:16:27 GMT starlight92 said:

Quite tempted by these super cheap tickets, but I'm a bit of a wuss unfortunately - obviously as someone said earlier fear is subjective, but how scary do people actually find it?

I would say it's 'chilling', rather than scary.

When I first got here one om Managers told me that his wife went and saw it and screamed and I thought 'yeah, right' but I must admit, the way it's stage, the story does draw you in and a girl screamed when I saw it too.

(For what it's worth) I too am a wuss!

[critchyboy]

It depends on how much you are willing to buy into it. You have to engage the imagination in it - it’s not like the big shows that show you everything on stage! It is, in my opinion, a wonderful piece of traditional storytelling.

[interval99]

Fun clip posted from the current cast promoting kids weeks tickets and five ways to scare your parents. Some nice shots of the tiny auditorium included



As others have said this a wonderful theatrical treat which lets all ages rediscover the magic of storytelling and their own imagination.
If this show doesn't at some stage make you feel uneasy during or afterwards make you turn on the lights before going down the hallway or out to the bins just in case she is lurking then your soul has already been taken and you are already walking the pathways of damnation.

[Rory]

[Jon]

33 years is good inning but I admit I'm excited that the Fortune is free for new shows for the first time in decades.

[TallPaul]

Broken 12 hours ago by the sleuthing of our very own Rory.

[NeilVHughes]

Is it worth seeing before it closes? not been interested as one that was always there and felt in no rush.

[Jon]

Nov 9, 2022 11:17:30 GMT TallPaul said:

Broken 12 hours ago by the sleuthing of our very own Rory .

Note to producers, don't cut your booking period until just before you break the news. 

[Matt]

Nov 9, 2022 11:19:49 GMT NeilVHughes said:

Is it worth seeing before it closes? not been interested as one that was always there and felt in no rush.

You might as well. I haven’t seen it for about 10 years but there’s some jumps and clever stuff in there. I guess if you don’t see it now you may never do again? I’m sure tickets are cheap?

[Jon]

I wonder if school bookings had dropped to the point they couldn't keep it going longer or if ATG finally decided they didn't want it anymore so activated the stop clause.

[Rory]

[notmymuse]

Nov 9, 2022 11:19:49 GMT NeilVHughes said:

Is it worth seeing before it closes? not been interested as one that was always there and felt in no rush.

I'd say yes. Try and sit nearer the front. It's a classic and can be genuinely thrilling and scary and a lovely example of theatrecraft. Also, cheap seats are easy to come by.

[Mark]

It was very tired when I saw it earlier in the year, but if you've never seen it, you've got nothing to lose.

[theatrefan62]

Absolutely love The Woman In Black, fantastic piece or simple but very clever pure theatre. Sad its closing

[marob]

I saw a matinee of the tour in Liverpool with a few school groups in, who annoyed the hell out of me by screaming at everything, then giggling because they screamed. 🙄

I liked it, but not really enough to go again, so I’m that respect it will be nice to have a reason to see something at the Fortune Theatre at some point.

[Jon]

On one of the other threads, they mentioned The Woman in Black's weekly gross were around £50,000 and it still made a profit. I'm assuming rising costs and declining audiences meant that profit was wiped out and it was just breaking even if not losing money.

[theatrefan62]

If schools and tourists make up a large portion of their audience then it's not a surprise. Schools will be cutting back to save costs and tourists haven't returned in full yet

[Jon]

Has either BBC London or ITV London mentioned the closure? You'd think a long runner closing in the West End would be news worthy?

[anthony]

Had a feeling this was coming. A few weeks ago, we tried to book a school trip with dates available on the website. We then received a response saying that tickets are not available for that date and noticed that all future dates had been changed to "sold out".

[Jon]

The producer of The Woman in Black has said it will return to the West End which could be just a way of sugarcoating the news of the closure. Would anyone else really want it though.

[westendboy]

This is gonna sound very sappy, but man this news really hurts. This show really means a lot to me, it's one of the few plays that I consider near perfection and I always gush whenever I talk to someone about it. I'm sure it will return to the West End, as what Jon said, but it's still so disheartening to hear the news of a giant of the London theatre scene finally come to an end after a 33 year run. If it does return, I will definitely see it in it's new home, but it's hard to imagine it anywhere else, other than the Fortune.