|
‘Woman in Black’ horrifies
By Diana Matusewic
The psychologically horrifying play, ‘Woman in Black’ is back in St. Cloud starting Halloween night at the Pioneer Place on Fifth Avenue.
“It’s a mind-bender, not violent,” said Dan Barth, co-founder of Pioneer Place. “This is the perfect time of year for a show like this and people like these types of movies in the theaters, but to actually experience this live with live people is phenomenal.”
There are many flashbacks in this play.
“(The play) takes place roughly in the 1930s and 25 years before that,” said director Peter Moore. “A lawyer hires an actor to act out some terrible events that happened to him 25 years before in order to put them to rest.”
The play consists of only two characters and occasionally a woman in black wandering around.
Matt Guidry and Stephen Pelinski, residents of Minneapolis, are the two actors. Pelinski (Mr. Kipps) will play the part of the lawyer who is haunted by ghosts while Guidry will play the actor who is hired to act out Mr. Kipps’ horrifying story.
Moore said the play depended a lot on the audience’s imagination.
“There’s not a ton of special effects involved, so the horror and the freight comes from the actors’ performances,” Barth said. “It’s almost like primal fear where you don’t know the out-come till the last line of the show; definitely keeps you on the edge of your seat.”
Barth described the actors as “top notch.”
“It’s such a great experience working with professional actors,” Barth said. “This show is incredibly text-ridden, there are a lot of lines in this play and they have learned them in a week.”
Guidry has performed or produced every production in the Burning House group, of which he is also a founding member. He has also worked for various theaters and has appeared in the movies ‘The Straight Story,’ ‘Sugar and Spice’ and ‘World and Time Enough.’
Pelinski has taught and coached at the University of Delaware, University of Minnesota and Macalister College. He has also performed across the country, has won two awards — the Fox Fellowship and the McKnight Fellowship awards — and was inducted into the Guthrie Theater’s Hall of Fame.
“‘Woman in Black’ was the second show we ever ran on Pioneer Place on Fifth when we opened in 1999,” Barth said. “We only had it for one weekend and we’ve had people ask us over the past four years when we’re going to bring it back. The presenting company is called the Actor Theater of Minnesota and the show is actually opening here at the Pioneer Place and then going on a three-week run at the Fitzgerald in St. Paul.”
‘Woman in Black’ first appeared in London 12 years ago and it is London’s second longest running play. There is even a made-for-TV movie version of it in England.
‘Woman in Black’ will be showing Oct. 3 and, Nov. 1, 2, 8 and 9 at 7:30 p.m.
|
|
|
|
Privacy Policy Network Advertising Article Syndication
|
|
