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Vertigo Theatre has enlisted the help of a Rabbit to help exorcise the ghost that will be haunting its theatre for the spooky month of October.
Andy Curtis has been a member of the One Yellow Rabbit resident company for 40 years. In The Woman in Black, he plays an aging lawyer named Arthur Kipps who hires an actor to help him dramatize his story about encountering a malevolent spirit known as the woman in black who haunts Crythin Gifford, an isolated English seaside village.
The Woman in Black began life as a novel by celebrated English novelist Susan Hill in 1983 and was turned into a stage play by Stephen Mallatratt, a prolific television writer who worked on such ITV series as Coronation Street and The Forsyte Saga. The play, which opened in London in 1987, closed last year after chalking up 13,232 performances — making it the second-longest-running non-musical in the West End, after Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap which is now in its 72nd year, and edging toward its 30,000th performance.
Joining Curtis in The Woman in Black is Joe Perry, as the actor Kipps hires. Because Kipps is the central character in this story, it’s decided the actor will play him, and Kripps will play all the minor characters, which means Curtis inhabits as many as six roles. Curtis is no stranger to quick changes, and Vertigo audiences will remember him doing just that in the company’s zany 2017 production of The 39 Steps.
“The first time I had to play multiple characters was probably back in the early ’90s when we produced Ilsa, Queen of the Nazi Love Camp at One Yellow Rabbit. This approach became something of a staple for us at Rabbit, and it’s such a treat for actors,” says Curtis, who admits he relies on the backstage crew to help him.
“Costumes have always been a great help for me to keep the characters distinct, even if it is just a different hat, scarf or jacket. In these 10-second costume changes, I’m praying someone is holding the right garment or prop. I see the hat, coat, monocle or top hat, and remember what the guy talks like, and what his mannerisms are. That’s the trigger that does it for me.”
When he’s creating these different characters for a specific play, Curtis says he doesn’t “look outside of the play. I don’t say I’ll give this guy a Michael Caine kind of dialect, or maybe I should do Peter O’Toole from Lawrence of Arabia.
“For Kipps, because he’s a London lawyer, he’d have to speak with a proper British accent, whereas the locals down in Yorkshire would have variations of that dialect depending on their station. There’s a local lawyer, a landlord, a real estate agent, and a great gruff, surly carriage driver. I’m really fortunate with The Woman in Black to have Laurann Brown as my dialect coach. She was trained at the Royal Academy in London.”
Curtis says, as far as ghosts go, he’ll leave them for the theatre.
“I’m a rationalist so I’m a bit of a skeptic anyway. Ghosts make for great storytelling, but I’d have to see one to make me a believer.”
Many theatres boast of having their resident ghost or two. The old Canmore Opera House theatre at Heritage Park was said to be home to a ghost.
“I think all the major theatres in Calgary are too new to have a ghost, but that could change now that we are losing so many of our pioneer local actors, directors and theatre musicians. If any of those people came back as spirits, they’d be as friendly, supportive and encouraging as they were before they passed away.”
Curtis says “If you have to exorcise a ghost, I think the best way to do it would be to tell their story, which is the premise of The Woman in Black, and, of course, you’d have to hire Jamie Dunsdon to direct it, because, if anyone knows spooky, it’s Jamie.”
The Woman in Black runs at Vertigo Theatre until Oct. 27. Creating the otherworldly playground for Curtis, Perry and Dunsdon are set designer Scott Reid, costume designer Hannah Fisher, lighting designer Narda McCarroll, and Andrew Blizzard with music and sound effects.