⭐⭐⭐⭐ “A superb performance leaving you looking over your shoulder for the rest of the evening”.
On Thursday evening we were lucky enough to go and watch one of this years last showings of brand new theatre show, The Wicked Lady. A ghost story written by the incredibly talented James Williams (artistic director of JW Theatres in Birmingham). A play based on the real life story of Katherine Ferrers.
The Wicked Lady is a narrative driven ghost story. Relying on tension, unease and dread to bring you into the tale. It has all the great aspects of a ghost story. The eerie secluded abandoned house with secrets and history, the troubled individuals and the lack of phone signal (21st Century horror). And that is as much as we want to reveal of the story itself as the ‘not knowing’ really adds to this play. The secrets must be kept.
What we can say is that it is brilliantly created and performed. With a cast of only two, it harks back to the absolute classic stage show of The Woman In Black.
Nicki Davy plays the role of Katherine Ferrers excellently. The audience are gripped, hanging on to her every word. Eyes following her around the stage and auditorium. Saul Bache plays the role of Sean Fenton who has a voice that leaves you entranced. His introduction about whether the fear and anticipation of something happening is worse than it actually happening, really drew me in.
Blue Orange Theatre is the perfect venue for the show. Being such a small and intimate space, we as the audience felt involved and a part of the story.
We were hugely impressed by the production values throughout: the sound design especially is fantastic, alongside some brilliant lighting (Alex Johnson) and the two combined play a huge part of getting your heart rate racing and the hair on the back of your neck standing up.
This is definitely not a production for the faint hearted. It sets out to scare you and it does exactly that. If you’re a bit nervy, it might be best to avoid. But if you are up for a bit of a scare, you should definitely see The Wicked Lady when you can. Don’t let her see you though.
We would love to see this touring the UK in small intimate theatres. It really deserves to be out there, seen by many.
Check out JW Theatres here: JW Theatres
Disclaimer: We were invited along to see the show. All thoughts and opinions are entirely our own.