The Woman in Black at Venue Cymru Llandudno Review
The Woman in Black
Venue Cymru, Llandudno
22-27 June 2015
Reviewed by Laura Fairbairn
For those not local to the area, a visit to Venue Cymru may involve the use of a car so it is important to be aware of the parking facilities. There is free parking available on some of the surrounding roads, but when I arrived at about 6:50pm there were no spaces to be found, undoubtedly because Llandudno is a hub of North Wales tourism so there is always more than just locals looking to park. However, I had no trouble at all finding a space to park in the car park to the rear of the theatre and from 6pm – 9am it costs only £1.10 to park for any length of time – in my opinion, far more reasonable than other venues I have visited. This being said, the theatre is within easy walking distance of the very centre of town where other car parks are available as well as bus stops and the train station. It’s proximity to the town also makes it very easy to extend your evening if you’d like to visit a bar before or after your visit to the theatre.
The Venue itself is quite modern with clean and contemporary décor throughout. The box office is immediately noticeable upon entry and it much larger than many other theatres which makes things so much easier if you have to collect your tickets on the night of the performance. The toilet facilities are very compact and easily become busy so be prepared for queues at the interval but they are very clean which has not been my experience in other theatres. There was a good choice of snacks and drinks available to take into the performance with you or to have during the interval – not particularly cheap, but in-line with other theatres and it was nice to see a varied selection. The staff that I met we all very pleasant, friendly, helpful and (very importantly) well informed – I find it quite off-putting when a theatre attendant knows little to nothing about the shows that are on, but the staff at Venue Cymru don’t have this issue.
The Woman in Black started out as a book written by Susan Hill, which I will admit I have not read. I have, however, seen the film adaptation staring Daniel Radcliffe and I found it to be quite spooky to say the least so when I heard it was coming to the theatre as well, I was very interested to see how it would work on the stage. The Venue Cymru website provides a link to a trailer for the stage show and, perhaps I am turning into a wimp, but it almost put me off going – it gave me the distinct impression that at some point it was going to make me jump out of my seat … and, do you know what? I was right! Several parts of the performance cause the whole audience to jump, it was fantastic! I will not give too much away as I would hate to spoil it for anyone else, but be prepared to be scared.
Mr Kipps is played by Malcolm James who has a fantastic history of positive reviews across a vast array of theatrical roles as well as appearances in television shows such as Heartbeat, Coronation Street and The Bill.
Matt Connor plays The Actor and he too has a wealth of experience on both stage and television as well as in film and on the radio.
In The Woman in Black, both deliver superb performances that are totally convincing, very professional and will keep any audience hooked. They deserve extra praise, in my opinion, because their performances were faultless throughout despite a ‘noisy’ audience. I think they may have been expecting the screams and even the howling laughter that came at several points (people laugh when they have just been scared apparently), but when you are in the middle of a silent, very scary part of the play that has the audience so gripped and silent that you could hear a pin drop and one of the people watching delivers an exceptionally loud sneeze that promptly sets everybody else off laughing, it take a special skill for the actor to show no reaction at all!
If you want an evening of thrills, scares and laughter this adaptation will certainly deliver. The first performance of The Woman in Black took place in Scarborough in 1987 and has been wowing audiences ever since and will be at Venue Cymru, Llandudno until Saturday 27th June, so if you are free one night this week I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this show to you!
Rating: 5/5 
Tickets cost from £13 to £24.50 (plus £3 administration fee).
The Woman in Black is at Venue Cymru in Llandudno until 27 June 2015. For more information or to book tickets click here or call the box office on 01492 872000.
Venue Cymru, The Promenade, Llandudno, Conwy, LL30 1BB | 01492 872000
