‘We can believe he does not see her, nor know she’s there’: Erasure and The Woman in Black

Abstract

This article focuses on a 1980s theatrical adaptation of a 1980s novel from the vantage point of the twenty-first century; the production experienced by the author was a live performance in its twenty-fifth anniversary year. The Woman in Black, adapted from Susan Hill’s 1983 novel, has run virtually unchanged since its transfer to the West End in the late 1980s. While the Woman has been read as a feminist depiction of a female ghost who defies patriarchal control, this article argues that such readings are mitigated by the material performance and marketing strategies necessary for the creation of a commercially successful Gothic horror production. While the play mirrors the novel’s depictions of 1980s cultural horrors, its apparent depiction of a powerful female ghost elides the various strategies which contain and limit that power, and work to erase the actor. The production’s unusually long run serves to emphasise these Gothic erasures, elisions, and sleights of hand.